Student gardens to bloom

Home-grown flowers, vegetables and herbs can soon sprout in a community garden for students and faculty with a green thumb.

University officials have approved a budget of $4,800 to construct and maintain a community garden for students, faculty and staff to grow their own plants. It will be funded through the Alumni Association.

Molecular biology junior L. Mirielle Anderson came up with the idea while she was interning at the University of Pennsylvania. She founded "The Arbortrators," the UTD Garden Club, which has about 23 members.

Anderson said she was inspired by the active involvement of her housemates in the local community gardens while she was living in Philadelphia.

"A lot of universities have community gardens," she said. "The University of Michigan has hundreds and hundreds of plots, for example."

Some crops will be prohibited, though no official list of banned plants has been written, Anderson said.

"You can't have mint, or other plants that tend to take over other crops. No trees, or obviously anything illegal," she said.

The garden hasn't been built yet because a location hasn't been finalized, Anderson said. Most likely, she said, the garden will be north of the cricket field at the south end of campus.

The proposed size of the garden is 82 feet by 52 feet, with 12 plots of land measuring 8 feet by 4 feet, Anderson said. The plots will be issued to members of the gardening club only, and may require a deposit of about $20 to ensure they aren't abandoned or neglected.

Anderson envisions the garden expanding, moving northward between Waterview Park Phase II and the soccer fields.

The fall semester will be spent building and setting up the garden itself, Anderson said. The grass needs to be removed, compost processed and mulch added to the topsoil. The first planting season will begin after the last frost of the winter.

The garden will mostly likely not be organic, because fertilizers and pesticides may be needed to produce healthy crops, Anderson said.

Anderson said she expects the gardens to consist mostly of herbs, vegetables and flowers.

Students, faculty and staff interested in the gardens or the club can receive more information by contacting Anderson at lma033000@utdallas.edu.

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