Art in the Garden

Artist Bill Wilson donates his metal sculpture to our garden! You can also check out Wilson's work at the Monarch Sculpture Garden.

In one month!

We started the garden on June 2, 2010. By July 2, 2010 this is what it looks like! Thanks to the SMU and local community volunteers. Now let's celebrate! Come to the garden tomorrow at 1pm for some food, drinks, music and blessing by Abbot Neal.


grass and weeds - blank slate

tomatoes, potatoes, beans, peas, bok choi, sun flowers, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, currants, onions, carrots, new shed, worms, art and more!

from imagining the possibilities

to making it happen

and taking care of the garden

Learning Garden Blessing and Celebration

Garden Party #4

Next Garden Party is Wed. June 30th, 3-6pm. Garden Blessing and Celebration is on Wed, July 7th 1 pm.

The garden is almost ready. The shed is built, beds are built. Beans, sunflowers and heirloom tomatoes are planted.

We will have orange, yellow, green and red tomatoes and will save seeds for our seed library!

Everyone is working hard. Planting, building a raised bed and assembling the shed.

Prof. Arwin Smalley plants beans with students Sarah and Amanda.

what happens to your feet in the garden.

Stewart finished the shed!

Everything fits in it. Even the wheelbarrow and I.

Wednesday Garden Party Tomorrow

10am - 2pm in the garden. We will finish assembling the shed, build more beds, fill them with soil and plant more stuff! Join us.

A Campus Garden at USF

Prof. David Silver talks about a campus garden at USF. We hope that our garden will be able to feed as many mouths. Send us some of that California sunshine please!

Garden Party #3

First garden party when it didn't rain on us!

SMU's First Lady, Kathleen and Thurston County Food Bank volunteer Phillip, prepare the whiskey barrels for planting.

Deciding where to plant what.

Amanda and Sarah test the soil. Turns out it needs more of everything (N,P and K).

Strawberry box.

Dr. Shkurkin, Sarah, Rosemary, Amanda, Phillip and I get fed a delicious local, organic lunch by Bon Appétit.

Purple potatoes, beans, bok choi and peas are in here.

Garden Party Tomorrow

Come join us for the Garden Party tomorrow, Wednesday June 16th 10am-2pm in front of Old Main.

We Can Change the World

Hear Majora Carter, a visionary urban planner, talk about the role that sustainability plays in social justice.

Next Garden Party is Wed 16th 10am-2pm

last week we built more garden beds and almost finished building a cedar garden shed! Also, some respberries and squash were planted in the whiskey barrels. There will be more planting and building next week.

Fr. Kilian is up in Alska right now, so we are waiting for him to get back to have the garden blessing on July 7th.

Garden Party #1

The SMU Learning Garden Was Born Today!

We had a blast even though it rained on us. The next garden party is next Wednesday 3-6pm. Same place. Everyone welcome to join in. We will be building more beds and filling them up with dirt.


for more photos, go here

Garden Spot

Time to Garden!

Well, we have gotten the final approval for the garden location! We will put in a garden right next to the dining hall (see the images in the last post). This is a great location for a few reasons:

1. it is in the center of campus and easily accessible
2. it is right next to the kitchen
3. there are outdoor tables right next to the garden space
4. when you are in the garden, there is a great view of campus

We are very excited to begin the garden. If you would like to join the garden team, please answer a few questions here to let us know how you would like to participate and how we can contact you.

Right now the plan is to have Garden Parties every Wednesday 10-2pm. We will do gardening and have workshops in the garden. Our first Garden Party is next Wednesday, June 2 at 10am. We will lay down mulch and build raised beds. Come join us!

Garden Blessing and Dedication will most likely take place on June 16th at 10 am. More on this soon.

Let's plant a lot of strawberries.

Now Proposed Location

Here is another proposed location. SMU's kitchen Bon Appétit is willing to share their herb garden space in front of the kitchen area. Here are some pictures of the space.

above is a crudely pasted together view inside of the fenced in area where Bon Appétit's herb garden will be located. Below is the space where we can put in raised beds.

Students Amanda and Rosemary, Food Bank volunteer coordinator Heather and ESL faculty Blaine model the garden space.

The pros of this space is that it is easily accessible, highly visible, there is easy access to water and we would only need two sides of a fence as the other sides are buildings. There is also a nice view of the campus from the garden and we can collaborate with the kitchen and share our resources.

Lecture on Sustainability at TESC

View more documents from NightBear.

Maintaining the Garden

Several members of the committee have asked about how we might go about maintaining the garden once it is established. Below are examples of several schools that have implemented learning gardens and the people who help take care of them.

UW Tacoma-- The UW Tacoma learning garden is supported through a class called "Plants and People," and two students who volunteer their time to helping maintain the garden. Maintenance includes: watering, weeding, planting, harvesting, etc. to keep the garden running.

Penn State University-- The Montgomery County Cooperative Extension Horticulture Department, Montgomery County Master Gardener Volunteers, and the horticulture industry help to maintain Penn State's learning garden.

The Ute Ethnobotany Project Learning Gardens-- The Ute Ethnobotany Project, initially started with the help of Jeffery Ventlin's class, is supported and run by students from the Northern Ute Nation.

Learning Garden's Laboratory-- Graduate students enrolled in Portland State University's Leadership in Ecology, Cultures and Learning Program help with a science curriculum where Middle school students can learn about ecology and the garden, through direct, hands-on experience the process of growing and harvesting food. More than 200 Middle school students learn and in turn take care of Portland State's learning gardens.

Yale-- Yale's learning gardens are jointly maintained by weekly volunteers 1pm-5pm on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, and several professors who use the garden as a resource in their course work. The school hosts six undergraduate interns every summer to learn about the connections between sustainability, food, and agriculture.

Evergreen State College-- A farm team made up of students from the Ecology department help to maintain the college's learning garden.

University of Florida--The demonstration gardens of Florida University are maintained by the students whose classes are supplemented by it, and by regular volunteers.

Lane Community College--The community learning gardens of Lane Community College are maintained through a combination of students, volunteers, work study participants, internships, and students seeking service learning hours, or with the permission of their professors, class credit.

Ideas for Deer Fences

In preparation for the installation of our garden, and the deer that share the campus with us, the Sustainability committee has been exploring possible fences. Here are a few of the possibilities... What do you think? Keep the ideas coming.

What other schools are doing

University of Washington, Tacoma garden video

UW, Tacoma helps with the local mission and donates the vegables and friuts they grow in the garden. The school has students who voluteer their time to help with the garden. The garden is located about 4 blocks away from the campus. Students who work in the garden usually work about 4-5 times a week.


Ohio State, ( Chadwick Arboretum & Learning Gardens )

Ohio State's leanring gardens rely on volunteer support for all of their day to day opperations, and is specifically used by Landscaping and Horticultural classes. Part funded by the college, part funded by local businesses, private donors, plant sales, and membership fees (an option which allows subscribers invitations to private events, discounts on plant sales, etc...) The gardens and Arboretum are integrated into the campus landscape itself to be enjoyed by all, not just the volunteers.


Penn State, (Cooperative Extension in Montgomery County)

Supported by volunteers and local business, the gardens include a butterfly, water, rock, turf management, groundcover, perennial and annual, and universally accessible gardens for students and the community at large.


Colorado State University, (The Ute Ethnobotany Learning Garden Project)

The Ute Ethnobotany Learning Gardens, are supported by the U.S. Dept. of Interior Bureau of Land Management, Dept. of U.S. Forest Service, Mesa State College, Colorado State University Extension and Colorado Master Gardener Program, and Nothern Ute Indian Nation, the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, students and volunteers. Though still in its infancy and construction stages, the project plans to teach living and eating from a xeric landscape, traditional Native American gardening skills, Ute structures and miniature plant communities, as well as provide an adaptable vegetable garden for people with limited mobility and/or living space.


Portland State University, (Learning Gardens Labratory)

Supported by Portland University, Portland Public Schools, Portland Parks & Rec., OR State Extension Service, and volunteers, the Portland Learning gardens provide classes not just to their local campus, but to surrounding schools and students of all grades and skill levels including: Ecology, Cultures and Learning Program, Environmental Education, Grant Writing for the Environment, Sustainable Food Systems, and Learning Gardens and Civic Affairs.

Proposed Garden Location

What do you think of this location?

Sustainability, health and environmental protection have been some of the most important topics in our country and in the world today. The White House recently started a garden on its own lawn, sending a message to the American public about the value of fresh, organic and locally grown produce. Michelle Obama acknowledged that one of the primary goals of the presidential garden is to educate America’s youth about the importance of healthy food. In urban centers, there is a growing green movement of building and cultivating community gardens. More recently, our neighboring cities such as Seattle and Portland have started urban harvesting programs that organize volunteers to harvest and maintain neighborhood fruit trees, donating the resulting bounty to soup kitchens and food banks.

Schools and universities are also recognizing the educational potential of gardens. This year, University of Washington, Tacoma started a garden on their urban campus. The Evergreen State College has long had an organic garden that is operated by students. Yale University students started a farm in 2003. These are just a few examples of schools harnessing the power of gardens to teach, create community and to contribute to positive social change.

Saint Martin’s University is a perfect setting for an educational garden. We are situated in a beautiful oasis of green, with plenty of sunny patches to nourish vegetables, herbs and flowers. A number of SMU faculty have expressed interest in having a campus garden and in using it in their teaching. The garden is also an excellent fit with the Benedictine philosophy of environmental stewardship, community and labor. And for students, imagine walking from your dorm to the garden to pick dome fresh strawberries for breakfast.