Rice Community Garden looks to involve faculty, staff

Rice Community Garden looks to involve faculty, staff

BY ARIE WILSON
Rice News staff

Jones College senior Jennifer Wang has a vision for growth at Rice — but not the kind one might expect.

Photo by Jeff Fitlow

Jones College senior Jennifer Wang said she envisions Rice University faculty, staff and students working side by side to bring the Rice Community Garden into full bloom.

Wang, coordinator of the Rice Community Garden, sees the potential for the university’s green space to blossom, but believes it will take faculty, staff and students working side by side to bring the garden into full bloom.

Located in a grassy area between the Mudd Building and Hicks Kitchen, the garden totals 500 square feet and includes six large beds.

The vegetables harvested from the garden are donated to Omega House, a live-in hospice facility for HIV/AIDS patients.

Throughout its seven years in existence, the garden has been stunted by myriad problems, resulting in a harvest of only a few bags of vegetables each semester, she said.

During the summers and long breaks, students return home and the garden is left untended. Finding enough volunteers to staff the garden year-round has been difficult.

“We are considering options to maybe even pay someone to come and pull weeds and water the garden during the summer,” Wang said. “Obviously, we would prefer to have a volunteer do it, but in the past that hasn’t worked out.”

Only about six volunteers regularly help tend the garden at 10 a.m. on Sundays, but Wang hopes more people will become interested.

“My dream is to see a better mix of undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and staff,” Wang said. “If people can’t come on the weekend, then we would consider adding another work day.”

The garden is funded through the Rice Student Volunteer Program’s environmental committee, and costs $100-$200 annually.

Only organic vegetables are produced in the garden, said Wang, who is working to improve the garden for the long term as part of an independent study course.

“Learning to grow your own food using a natural approach is a valuable skill,” Wang said. “And it’s a bonus that we can catch some fresh air, play in the dirt and help others all at the same time.”
Richard Johnson, the university’s sustainability planner, oversees Wang’s independent study course.

Johnson and co-adviser Paul Harcombe, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, discussed several course options with Wang, but quickly decided the community garden would be the ideal project.

“Some of the projects anyone could do,” Johnson said. “[Wang] was already familiar with the Rice Community Garden, and we felt she was in a unique place.”

As part of her coursework, Wang will compile a manual that will be handed down each year to the garden coordinators, Johnson said.

“So much time is lost having to redo the basics every year, and this way she can pass along already developed knowledge,” Johnson said. “The garden’s middle name is ‘community,’ and Jen wants it to be a place where different members of the Rice community can come together, garden and help people.”

Wang is working with Bob Randall, executive Director of Urban Harvest, a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening Houston communities through gardening, to propose a college course titled “Environmental Sustainability Through Community Gardening and Permaculture” that will be taught during the next academic year. She hopes students will take the unique opportunity to earn course credit for increasing their horticultural literacy and making a difference in the Rice and Houston communities.

Johnson said his ultimate hope is that the garden will prosper through the efforts of Wang and her fellow gardeners, becoming a space where students, faculty and staff can spend time together outside the classroom, have fun and grow organic food that will benefit local charities.

“So many people today have bought into the ‘work hard, play hard’ lifestyle, and while that might make for a catchy slogan, the truth is that we all need time to blend the notions of work and play in a relaxing way,” Johnson said. “That’s exactly what the community garden provides.”

For more information on the Rice Community Garden, contact Wang at <jyw@rice.edu>.