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Club cultivating on-campus produce garden


A new club on campus is looking to create and maintain sustainable gardens in the desert year-round.

Twenty-nine students make up ASU Grow, the only gardening club on campus, and they manage an area behind the Social Sciences Building on the Tempe campus.

Material sciences and engineering graduate student Heather McFelea helps lead the group as vice president and hopes that students will become more accustomed to the idea of growing local food.

“Even if students can’t do this gardening themselves, they can at least start appreciating that there are people who are doing local gardening,” she said.

The group takes fruit and vegetables it grows from the garden and sells them at farmers markets locally. Any money the club makes helps pay for the supplies of the garden, she said.

McFelea and other members of the club said they hope other students will eventually get to enjoy the garden’s produce. The club is working with Aramark, a food services company, and its legal department to become a supplier of produce at the University.

“We want to get the word out about local organic growing,” McFelea said.

Deborah Thirkhill, ASU arboretum and grounds volunteer coordinator, said there was interest to start the club last year but not enough time.

The group had difficulty finding a large enough space for a garden that wasn’t covered by building shadows. The issue now is getting students to devote the time needed to maintain the fenced-in 12-by-100-foot space behind the Social Services Building, she said.

“The challenge is everybody putting enough time to keep the garden looking good,” Thirkhill said. “It’s all about how much time you put into it.”

Cabbages, chili peppers, broccoli and wheat are grown in the on-campus garden, Thirkhill said. Students can learn a lot from growing and eating organically, she said.

“It’s really about learning how to feed yourself,” Thirkhill said.

Reach the reporter at dbjoraas@asu.edu


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