Arboretum starts community garden

Amanda Welch

Issue date: 4/14/08 Section: News

UCF students who don't mind flexing their green thumbs in exchange for fresh, organic produce might be interested in the Arboretum's up-and-coming community herb and vegetable garden.

The garden is the pilot project of the Student Sustainability Alliance, which is an involvement and communication network for students interested in sustainability on campus and in the Central Florida area. The SSA and its garden are still in the development stages, said Rebecca Rashkin, a junior environmental engineering major and the sustainability assistant at the Arboretum.

She said the goal is to work out a system in which students can cultivate and share their own herbs and vegetables.

"The idea is to have the people who work on it be able to take the herbs and eventually the vegetables when they grow," Rashkin said. "We're hoping to make some sort of an arrangement where if you put in a certain number of hours, it yields so many vegetables

." Right now, two domes of dark soil with bits of green peeking out, surrounded and crisscrossed by gray bricks, comprise the garden behind the Environmental Center. But there will be veggies and herbs for harvest as Arboretum volunteers and the Boys Town organization continue to tend the garden.

Teachers and children from Boys Town, an emergency shelter for at-risk kids in Oviedo, work with the Arboretum once a week, said Jeanette Messer, an instructor from the girls' shelter. Messer got involved with the Arboretum after seeing its display at Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando, and started bringing her students in November.

"They love it. They beg to go," Messer said. "I think the only thing they regret is when they leave."

Children stay with Boys Town for an average of 30 days and cannot make it to the garden every week, but Messer said they've done a lot of work, having planted lettuce, turnip greens and herbs.

The vegetable garden was started in fall 2006 by Jessica Lab, a sophomore majoring in environmental studies and general business. Lab said her mom always kept a garden, and when she came to UCF, she thought the Arboretum needed one.

The Arboretum supplied the bricks and soil; Lab purchased the seeds, manure and compost, and she and her boyfriend constructed the garden.

The Arboretum built the adjoining herb garden as a "little buddy" to her vegetable garden, Lab said.

She said she always intended for it to become a community garden.

"I knew I couldn't do it forever," she said.

As a member of the SSA and a volunteer for the Arboretum, Lab helps out with the garden every few weeks. She said she hopes more students eventually take an interest.

"I'd like to see some more students involved during harvest time," she said. "Whether it's people on campus buying the vegetables or people volunteering and taking the vegetables."

Rashkin, who is now in charge of the garden, said she plans on making the garden completely organic. She and the Arboretum staff have purchased many of the seeds for the herb garden from the Seminole Springs Antique Rose & Herb Farm in Eustis.

"It's not going to be completely organic," Rashkin said. "But we're working on it."

She said she will gauge interest in the community garden through the SSA.

Students can stay updated on the SSA by e-mailing sustainableucf@mail.ucf.edu or visiting the Facebook group, Student Sustainability Alliance.