Small garden plots have been popping up across the UTM campus. The students and faculty responsible for this are in Growing Gardens.Growing Gardens is the result of a University of Tennessee Women’s Philanthropy Alliance Grant awarded in Spring 2010 that provided funds to create community herb and vegetable gardens on the UTM campus that would eventually move into the local Martin community.
One of the most sustainable and healthy lifestyle practices consumers can undertake is to buy locally-grown produce, and what can be more local than a garden in our own backyards?
In today’s economic struggles, growing community gardens is a great way to bring the community together to provide healthy fruits and vegetables in which all community members can share; those who can afford it can pitch in to purchase seeds and plants while low-income individuals and families can volunteer to help plant and maintain the gardens.
The goals for the UTM gardens include getting a group of committed student volunteers, along with faculty and staff, to plan, plant and maintain the gardens. Once they get the original gardens well established, they hope to “grow” the gardens by adding additional gardens on campus.
If they are unable to get space on the central campus, they will look for space in Martin where both students and Martin residents can have easy access to the produce that is grown.
The initial effort includes three gardens. One is an herb garden in a built-in planter that runs along that south wall of the Paul Meek Library, just outside the doors.
The Library garden currently holds a variety of mints, basils, sage, oregano, parsley, rosemary, catnip and lemon balm. Volunteers have been enjoying picking sprigs of fresh herbs for use in cooking and to make tea.
Another garden is a small 2-plot garden on the southwest side of the University Center, where there are herbs, cucumber, yellow squash, tomatoes and eggplant.
Students may be more familiar with the garden in between Village Phase I and II. In this garden, there are herbs and vegetables. Unfortunately, many of those vegetables were planted too late and were caught by the frost.
Faculty, staff and students are encouraged to get involved and literally reap the rewards. Getting involved does require commitment during the months the gardens are growing since gardens need planning, planting, watering, weeding and fertilizing.
“We hope that as we grow, the Martin community will get involved and enjoy the Growing Gardens project,” Dr. Huse said.
They are working on keeping the Library garden growing over winter, since the Library walls provide shelter from the weather. The Village and U.C. gardens have taken a natural course, and will be replanted in the spring.
If there are bulb plants, they will plant in the early days of the spring semester. Otherwise, they will plant immediately after the last frost in late March or early April.
Everyone is encouraged to adopt a garden plot. While there is no monetary cost to adopt a garden plot, there is a “cost” in terms of active, involved membership and willingness to serve on the garden watering rotation.
The more people they can rely on, the less time and work that is involved for everyone.
Those adopting a plot can choose their own vegetables to plant. You do need to know what produce grows well in our region, and what is best in the different seasons.
If students let them know ahead of time what they want to plant, Growing Gardens will look for the seeds and plants to purchase them for the students.
Early this spring, Growing Gardens will be meeting to brainstorm plans for 2011. These plans will include where to place additional gardens, and also what to plant.
The University of Memphis Community Gardens served as an inspiration and a vision of what is possible. The gardens at Brown University, which the professors saw while at a conference in Rhode Island, gave them a vision for setting up the current Villages garden.
The current grant runs out this spring. Growing Gardens will be pursuing other grants and sources of funding for future planting, maintenance and expansion.
Growing Gardens has a Facebook page as well as a page on Orgsync. Anyone interested can contact Dr. Angie MacKewn at amackewn@utm.edu or Dr. Heidi Huse at hhuse@utm.edu. Contact them to find out the spring semester meeting times.
