Gardens as Learning Spaces

This week's readings focused on planning for food production, but many of the readings touched on the fact that urban farms and community gardens are often spaces that focus on more than just food production. The Cobb article was about how land trusts, formally used to simply preserve pristine land, are now being used to preserve working land, such as urban farms. The Hodgson article expands on the topic of urban farming and mentions that in addition to food production, urban farms can be environmentally beneficial, can promote local economic development, and be used as learning tools: in schools and in the larger community. I personally have experience with this last point. Every semester students at my undergrad had the opportunity to participate in a student-initiated and -run class that worked in the campus's organic garden. My second semester I participated in this class. The class structure of working in the garden necessitated that, well, we learn something. Therefore, a large part of the class was reading about organic food, sustainable food production, and environmental stewardship. However, the class also focused on the role that public gardens have in their communities, the importance of eating well and sharing food, and of course, on taking care of the garden. This was my first experience gardening - literally, at all - and I found a lot of value in learning how to weed, plant seeds, properly water (we used a combination of drip irrigation and more traditional watering), turn compost, and harvest. My proudest semester accomplishment was coaxing some beans to grow up a wire structure I had built with another student. The class also drew campus attention to some of the college's "edible landscaping" - throughout campus we had many mulberry trees and a lot of trees that grew clementine-like fruits (I still don't know exactly what kind of fruit it was but it was delicious). One of the most important aspects of the class was organizing a "garden party" at the end of the semester as a campus-wide event. Nearly all of the food served at the party had been grown in the garden and it was an opportunity for students in the class to raise awareness about the garden and to share the harvest with others. Even though I did not participate in the class every semester, I nearly always came back for the garden party.

More so than an opportunity to learn about organic gardening and foster a community through food and environmental stewardship, throughout my time at my undergrad I came to see the campus's organic garden as an incubator for other campus-wide sustainability initiatives. The organic garden was started by students and was the first example of a campus community striving to be more sustainable. As awareness about the organic garden spread and its importance in campus culture grew, so did ideas for other sustainable campus initiatives. Largely because of the needs of the garden, a campus-wide composting initiative became institutionalized. Because students were so aware of the food resources available, students created an "edible landscaping" map of campus. The community garden was also a meeting space for food activists, who participated in food justice protests and organized community events around food. The student-run cafe on campus began accepting donations of food from the garden, and even started their own garden. So when I think of "community garden" or "urban farm," I don't only consider their food production value. I know so much more can be borne of a group of people coming together and growing and sharing food with each other and the community.