From my experience working at campus community gardens (University of West Florida from 2011 to 2014; University of Texas at Arlington from 2015 to present), I can say that having the garden space as a pedagogical supplement has proven beneficial for my students in a number of ways. I was one of the early organizers of the community garden at the University of West Florida, coming to it during its infancy when the garden had only four raised beds. Under the leadership of one of my grad school mentors, Dr. Greg Tomso, I helped coordinate student volunteers in the construction of four new beds, doubling the size of the garden. The following school year, we were able to double its size yet again, adding eight more raised beds. I watched the garden become a hub of interdisciplinary collaboration and informal learning as various groups and clubs on campus volunteered to foster beds: undergraduate and graduate students working in the disciplines of botany, biology, and environmental science alongside environmental clubs that even included the Surf Club, as well as students from my composition classes (using the theme of “the politics of food”). Together, we worked to build a place on campus that is both material and symbolic, planting and growing healthy food that students and community members could eat while also growing a sense of connection that is not always possible in a classroom setting. Before coming to UT-Arlington, I was invited to be on a committee for UWF sustainable food and campus botanical visioning (10 year plan), and the garden site has since been moved to a more central location on campus and continues to yield harvests and grow community.
My experience at UT-Arlington, my current institution, has been similar in some ways but different in others. The garden on campus is a bit more established than UWF’s, with 75 raised beds and an affiliation with the city of Arlington’s Parks and Recreation Department. As I did at UWF, I encouraged my rhet/comp students to participate in Saturday work days as a way to supplement the learning in class (my theme one semester in English 1302 was “Sustainable Communities”). Based on firsthand accounts (I ask for reflection essays at the end of the semester), students immensely enjoy this experience and are able to learn both practical skills and environmental literacy. They also have the chance to meet a wide range of community members outside of the university setting and cooperate with them to achieve common goals. When teaching the literature course “Trees and Forests in Literature,” I’ve also included the community garden service-learning component, allowing students to tie together ideas about forest landscapes, sustainable land practices, and botanical agencies that come out in literature to the actual hands-on practice of interacting with varieties of plants and mini-ecosystems that promote the activity of pollinators and the general public alike.
Jason C. Hogue, Ph.D. 