Garden of Good Will

Garden of Good Will

BY DANA DURBIN
Rice News Staff
April 15, 1999

Peter Rabbit would feel right at home in the Rice Community Garden. He could
eat to his heart’s content without fear of ending up baked into a pie like his
father.

Because, unlike the old gardener who made Peter run for his life in the famous
children’s tale, the volunteers behind the student-run garden want others to
eat their vegetables. In fact, they plan on giving them away.

One of the main goals behind the Rice Community Garden, located in a grassy
area between Mudd Lab and Central Kitchen, is to donate vegetables to people
in economically disadvantaged areas who might not otherwise have access to fresh
produce.

The organizers of the organic garden believe that it will have other benefits
as well, such as providing students with an educational experience outside of
what is generally taught in the classroom and giving them the opportunity to
work with their hands in a green space within an urban area.

"Houston can be bleak in terms of connecting to nature," said Amanda
Barnum, a Hanszen College sophomore who is one of the garden’s organizers. "One
of the things we want to do through the garden is give students a place where
they can get away from the urban existence."

Barnum and Paula Wynn, a Brown College senior, have been a major driving force
behind the Rice Community Garden, a project of the Rice Student Volunteer Program
(RSVP). The idea for the garden first sprouted three years ago, but planning
really took off last year when Wynn became the RSVP environmental chair.

The first step in developing the garden was to find land. Various plots on
campus were proposed, Wynn said, and last December the plot where the garden
now sits was finally approved. The garden will stay where it is for up to five
years, but eventually it may be moved to an area near the South College, once
that is built.

The garden totals 500 square feet and includes five 4-by-20-foot soil beds
and one 4-by-24-foot bed. Already growing in the garden are beans, radishes,
tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, and later this spring squash, sweet potatoes
and southern peas will be planted. One of the garden’s beds is reserved for
herbs, flowers and plants that will attract butterflies, hummingbirds and beneficial
insects.

The plan, according to Barnum and Wynn, is to rotate out the crops, so that
as one vegetable is harvested, it will be replaced by a new, different crop
in the same bed. Green beans will be the first crop harvested, in mid- to late-May.
The first donation is expected to be made around that time, and the student
volunteers are still researching to which organization they will donate the
produce.

All six beds are surrounded by 8-inch-square cement blocks, each weighing 40
pounds. "I don’t think [the volunteers] realized how heavy those blocks
are. It’s hard work," noted Shelly Johnson ’90, a consulting specialist
in Mudd Lab who, along with her husband Roy, has been an important volunteer
because of her gardening experience.

Indeed, while gardening may sound like all fun and games, it has been hard
work and a serious learning experience for those involved.

"We’re flying by the seat of our pants here," said organizer Wynn.
"All these problems keep coming up, like the weather."

"We didn’t really know what we were doing," Barnum added. "We
just knew that we needed a garden."

The organizers did know enough in the beginning to contact Urban Harvest, a
Houston nonprofit group that helps individuals and organizations establish and
maintain community gardens. Bob Randall, executive director of Urban Harvest,
came to campus in February to give his talk "How to Start a Community Garden,"
which was attended by close to 100 students, faculty and staff.

Randall believes that Rice’s is the first community garden at any undergraduate
institution in Texas, though other universities are involved in community gardens
in other ways, like providing volunteers to work at off-site gardens.

"We are very pleased here at Urban Harvest that Rice has chosen to do
this," Randall said.

Community gardens, Randall explained, have evolved since they first became
popular in the late 19th and early 20th century. Then, they were developed in
cities in Europe where there were a lot of flats and tenements and in the United
States in big cities like New York City to provide land where people could grow
food and flowers. Community gardens were also common at orphanages, where the
food was eaten by the children, and during World War I and II community gardens
were created because most of the canned food was being shipped to soldiers.

The modern history of the community garden, Randall said, came out of the 1970s
post-Earth Day mind-set of "bringing nature back into the city." Also
at that time, there was a growing problem of poor nutrition in the inner city,
he said.

While there is still a hunger-based component to community gardens, Randall,
a former University of Houston ecological anthropology professor, said that
another goal of Urban Harvest is "to change they way people learn about
the land."

"Using land is something that has to be taught. You can’t get it from
reading a seed packet or listening to a radio show," Randall said.

He cautions that the students and other volunteers at the Rice Community Garden
must "be patient for the next six, nine months and anything they get out
of the garden, they should be happy."

One area that could be a problem for the Rice Community Garden, Randall said,
is the labor pool, which consists of students who will leave for extended periods
during school holidays and breaks. Also, students who gain knowledge about the
garden will graduate, taking their know-how with them.

That’s why faculty and staff volunteers will be a key component to the garden,
and fortunately the students have had strong support from those groups so far.

Johnson, who said that "gardening is what I do outside of work,"
has hatched butterflies at the garden at her home and has a lot of experience
in developing a wildlife habitat.

Barnum and Wynn said that other key volunteers include Rose Berridge, the physics
department coordinator, Sam Davis, professor of chemical engineering, and Priscilla
Huston, assistant to the provost for special projects. Bob Truscott, manager
of residential colleges, and Eusebio Franco, custodial and grounds manager in
Facilities & Engineering, have also been helpful.

Equally important, Randall said, will be the passing on of knowledge to younger
students who will eventually take over maintenance of the garden.

While Wynn will graduate in May, Barnum is only a sophomore and Sue Wang, who
will be one of the garden’s leaders next year, is only a freshman. They’ll have
plenty of time to gain knowledge and pass it on to others.

Wang will gain a lot of knowledge over the summer as she plans to do an internship
at Urban Harvest, and she already realizes the importance of passing that knowledge
on to other volunteers. Wang sees the garden as a community project in the fullest
sense.

"We have volunteers from all segments of the Rice community, including
not just undergraduate students, but also alumni, faculty, staff and graduate
students. The garden has real potential to bring Rice even closer as a community."

A dedication ceremony for the Rice Community Garden will be held Friday, April
16, from 4-6 p.m. at the garden site. As part of the ceremony, a ribbon cutting
will be held at 4:30 p.m. and there will be food and music by Edloe Street,
a rock group from Hanszen College.

The garden volunteers are seeking donated tools, including shovels, hoes, rakes,
hand clippers, wheelbarrows, hoses and other hand and weeding tools. Those interested
in volunteering at the garden site can sign up at the dedication event.

For more information about the dedication, the tool drive, or the garden in
general visit the Rice Community Garden Web site at http://riceinfo.rice.edu/garden.