At the end of this past semester, UF's Agronomy-Soils Club donated about 50 pounds of green beans to Bread of the Mighty Food Bank, according to Sustainable UF’s website. No can openers were required to enjoy these veggies. The beans were grown and harvested at the Student Agricultural Gardens.
The gardens are located next to the UF bat house. Students can rent a plot of land at the garden for $20-$35, depending on the size of the plot.
About the Student Agricultural Gardens:
An organization that really uses the gardens with a sustainable mindset is the Ethnoecology Society, whose Facebook page can be found here. The group meets every Friday at 5 p.m. to “work in the garden, talk about plants and cook a communal supper.”
I had the pleasure of visiting the student gardens recently to check out what the Ethnoecology Society had to offer. I was greeted by a student in a rolled-up, flannel shirt who handed me a stalk of freshly harvested sugar cane to snack on. He then showed me around the Ethnoecology Society’s portion of the gardens while other folks watered plants and snacked on potluck appetizers. I loved the casual atmosphere of it all. I loved the sustainable practices the group practiced on their garden even more.
Rather than being planted into tilled soil, most of the plants were grown in raised soil beds, which are elevated above the ground level on top of a layer of hay. The hay blocks weeds from growing into the soil beds, which are spaced apart in rows to prevent easy transfer of disease or pests among the soil beds. These practices are part of a strategy called Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which prevents pests and weeds without the use of chemical sprays that are detrimental to the environment.
When we finished touring the garden, I threw the husk of my sugar cane into the club’s compost pile, which is segmented into four divisions to help separate newly added plant wastes from the more thoroughly decomposed material.
The club is even looking into using bat guano (guess where they’ll find that!) as an additional source of fertilizer.
Posts in The Alligreener appear on Fridays.
