Did you know that UVA’s very own community garden is right next to OHill? The Student Garden is open for any community member to participate!
Most UVA students know the corner of McCormick and Alderman for Observatory Hill Dining Hall, but did you know that this intersection is also home to UVA’s very own community garden? The Student Garden is nestled right by where many first years call home, and it’s open for any community member to plant, tend to, and harvest crops!
What’s the story behind the Student Garden?
Our Student Garden was once managed by a CIO, but as interested students graduated the student organization dissolved. As a result, UVA leadership was tasked with finding a new group to keep the garden in its best condition, which is when the Office for Sustainability stepped in. The Service Learning team of the Office for Sustainability takes charge on organizing garden workdays, cycling plants throughout the seasons, and making sure each crop is well-watered.
In this past year, we’ve been excited to hold multiple collaborations with classes and CIOs at the Student Garden. We worked with Professor Kate Stephenson’s first year writing class focusing on food justice, where students posted content, participated in garden workdays, and even painted the garden’s shed to highlight community resources! The shed now displays panels of food equity resources in Charlottesville, like Morven Kitchen Garden.
Additionally, the Office for Sustainability’s Green Living team hosted a Green Your Dorm event in the Student Garden last October with SWAP @UVA, bringing students in for a clothing swap and free pumpkins.
Sustainability and food equity in community gardens
The UVA Student Garden is a community garden, meaning that any member of the UVA and Charlottesville community can use the space. By providing the area and support for community members to grow their own food, community gardens address food insecurity and provide healthy foods. One such community member successfully grew two eggplant plants in the Student Garden, which participants were very excited to take home.
Additionally, any excess crops harvested from the Student Garden that participants do not take home make their way to the UVA Community Food Pantry. The food pantry is a student-run initiative that provides food and hygiene items to reduce financial hardships of UVA students and staff, and they also aim to quantify food insecurity at UVA to promote a more just food system.
We also take many steps to make sure that the Student Garden operates sustainably and does not generate waste.
First, the water that we use in the garden comes from a rainwater collection bin that gathers rainwater from the astronomy building next door. We also only use compost from Black Bear Composting for our beds, which is the same facility that UVA Dine’s food waste goes to, achieving true circularity. Finally, the wooden picnic table, work table, and shed that we use was made for us by UVA Sawmilling using reclaimed wood that had fallen on Grounds!
What’s in the garden now, and how do I get in on the action?
We’ve got plenty of exciting summer crops growing in the garden right now. Summer classics like cucumber, summer squash, and tomatoes are just about ready to be harvested, while a variety of herbs and wildflowers are just beginning to poke out of the ground. We’ve even got fruits like melons taking root and raspberries flowering - check out our planting diagram or come on out and see for yourself!
Interested in getting involved? We’ve got our garden workday schedule posted on the UVA Student Garden Instagram (@studentgarden_uva), and you can also reach out there to partner with us for events or just ask any questions you may have. We’d love to see you there!
Gavin Crigger (he/him) is a rising 3rd-year student studying computer science and data science at UVA. He is a member of the service learning team of the Office for Sustainability, organizing volunteer opportunities like Corner Cleanups and helping run the UVA Student Garden.