University of Arkansas Sustainability Blog

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GroGreen and the Campus Community Garden

by | Jun 25, 2013 | Campus Community Garden, Campus Resource, GroGreen

GroGreen

Steadily showing off the campus’s green side, the University of Arkansas boasts a new Campus Community Garden.  This garden exists thanks to GroGreen, a registered student organization that brings together people that are interested in learning about gardening and where their food comes from.   Current Vice President, Megan Lankford, told OFS Intern, Addie, all about GroGreen and the community garden.

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UARK Community Garden

GroGreen has been in existence for a while at the UofA, and last year they set out to create an on-campus garden.  It took a lot of work, but after about 8 months of handling the politics behind it, GroGreen got the green light to create and manage a garden within the gated lawn of the Maple Hill dormitory.  Of GroGreen’s 50 members, about 10-15 are regularly dedicated to helping with the garden.  The campus Community Garden is maintained solely by GroGreen members in a “garden buddy” system.  Garden buddies are assigned a day to go out and maintain the garden by weeding, watering, pruning, etc.  Having a garden buddy keeps each person accountable so that the garden is well-kept, and it also allows for buddies to take turns with garden chores or call the other if they will not be able to cover their assigned day.

The garden boasts delectable goodies such as mint, eggplant, sweet and hot peppers, lettuce, basil and more!  Members recently constructed a trellis from donated bamboo in order to give a home to tomato plants that were originally planted in the green house.  Food from the garden can be used by members and is often donated to the University of Arkansas Full Circle Food Pantry.

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Get Involved with the GroGreen Community Garden

Getting involved with the GroGreen organization and the Community Garden is easy.  Join the facebook GroGreen: UARK Community Garden page to know the latest news, and write a post on the page to say if you would like to be on the email list serve.  During the school year the club meets monthly.  In addition to maintaining the garden, GroGreen members volunteer with Tri-Cycle Farms and Feed Fayetteville.