This post was originally shared on the Sustainability blog.
Most members of the University of Utah community have a go-to, on-campus spot for grabbing a snack, a drink or a meal. Some may opt for burgers and fries at The Game, while others may indulge in a slice of pizza from the Union’s Hive or scarf down some coffee and yogurt from the Honors Market. Virtually all of this food is grown elsewhere and brought to campus to be prepared and sold—typical for a university of this size and location. However, the Edible Campus Gardens (ECG) program works to grow food on campus, for campus.
Currently supervised by Gardens Program Coordinator Gabrielle James, ECG began in 1996 as a living laboratory for classes, and it now also serves as a resource for the campus community to receive fresh produce, conduct research and facilitate sustainable gardening practices. The garden grounds are currently maintained by an energetic group of student workers and volunteers. In 2024, 232 volunteers contributed 670 hours of labor to the gardens, toiling away by planting, weeding, watering, pruning, harvesting, cleaning and doing whatever else was needed to support the garden. According to Gabrielle, one of the biggest projects of 2024 was modifying the irrigation system in the largest garden, called Nuh Eevaat, by upgrading from two lines at 18-inch spacing to three lines at 9-inch spacing, which is more “in line with urban farming standards” and hopefully will “increase our growing space by one-third without growing our [physical] footprint.”
Designed to be a living, learning laboratory, ECG is comprised of three gardens on campus: the Nuh Eevaat Garden (west of the Erying Chemistry building), the Sill Garden (in front of the Sill Center), and the BU C Garden (outside of the Business Classroom building). Nuh Eevaat is the largest garden, totaling approximately one-quarter of an acre and is home to composting operations, the hoop house (which makes it possible to grow crops for longer than the in-ground growing season), apple trees, a peach tree, accessible raised garden beds, most of the row crops and serves as the primary outdoor classroom. In addition to row crops and massive herb plants, the Sill Garden has the majority of the fruit grown, including apples, apricots, goji berries and serviceberries. The BU C Garden is a pollinator garden and is used to grow grapes.
The Nuh Eevaat Garden hosts many plants and different gardening processes, including a Monarch Waystation. Monarchs are the brilliantly colored butterflies that undertake epic annual migrations between the mountains of Mexico and the southern border of Canada. As these butterflies travel thousands of miles between their wintering and summering grounds, the availability of food (especially milkweed plants) along the route determines whether these insects successfully complete their journeys and reproduce. Monarch Watch is an organization that promotes the installation of monarch-friendly gardens so that the insects can utilize the food sources en route during their migrations. With funding from the Sustainable Campus Initiative Fund (SCIF), City & Metropolitan Planning (CMP) graduate students, alongside advisor Sarah Hinners, installed a bioswale in the southeast section of the Nuh Eevaat Garden. This stormwater runoff channel helps prevent flooding in key areas of the garden. In the summer of 2024, Gabrielle and the Growing Gardens, Growing Communities class within the Growing Educational Pathways for Food Sovereignty (GEPFS) program planted showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) and other pollinator supporting species in the bioswale to maximize its ecological benefits. Though the plants are still establishing, they’ve already produced nectar and fed pollinators as of last season. The transformation of this once-underutilized space into a functional bioswale and monarch waystation highlights the educational and collaborative potential of the Edible Campus Gardens program.
During the 2024 garden season, the three garden locations served as an outdoor classroom for numerous student groups. Representing 10 different departments, 17 class sections held classes in the living labs 63 times, totaling an impressive 1,408 learning hours. Whether through Intro to Civic Leadership, Environmental Justice, or Biology 1 Lab, the gardens operate as dynamic learning spaces designed to foster environmental stewardship, community resilience and a sense of belonging on campus.
Undergraduate student Elisa Diaz is a senior and has been working on a mixed-methods research project to study campus garden engagement. This project is gathering “data to aid internal decision-making within the program, support external reporting and inform general program management,” Elisa explained, adding that the project is supported by the Bennion Center’s Community Engagement Certificate program, the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, Utah Academy of Arts and Sciences and, of course, the Edible Campus Gardens. In addition, Elisa is leading a collaborative art project that will paint colorful designs on the sides of the raised garden beds. This will protect the beds’ structural integrity while showcasing artwork and designs created by the campus community. Throughout her undergraduate career, Elisa also worked as a Community Engaged Learning Assistant (CELA) for three different courses, all of which worked in the ECG to enrich in-class learning: Sustainable and Equitable Food Systems, a Community Engaged Learning course and The Garden: Plot and Provisions. “Some of the tasks we completed through the classes were seed blocking, seed saving, weeding and harvesting,” Elisa said.
One of the ECG’s most involved partnerships lies with the Feed U Pantry, the U’s free food pantry for students, staff and faculty. This campus resource aims to minimize hunger by providing food to members of the U community. Producing vegetables, fruit and herbs for the pantry is another way the ECG contributes positively to the campus community. During the 2024 harvest season, ECG donated 352 pounds of “eggplant, okra, hot peppers, sweet peppers, apples, peaches, a variety of herbs (cilantro, lemon balm, mint, rosemary, lavender, chives, fennel, borage, thyme, oregano, etc.), tomatoes, grapes, rhubarb, a variety of greens (kale, mustard, dandelion, chard, purslane, etc.), carrots, goji berries, tomatillos, onions, ground cherries, garlic, beans, corn, kohlrabi, radish and gooseberries,” Gabrielle proudly listed.
Not all harvested produce goes directly to the Feed U Pantry; some are used for educational programs that promote experiential learning. One example is the Feed U Pantry’s Zoom Cooking Hour, where participants receive meal ingredient kits featuring fresh herbs from the gardens. During the session, students explore how fresh herbs can elevate their cooking. Later this year, Gabrielle plans to use the luffa gourds harvested in fall 2024 for a soap-making workshop, further showcasing the versatility of homegrown produce.
Since they began in their role supervising garden operations in August 2022, Gabrielle has seen the program grow in size and impact and has successfully worked to boost course engagement, formalize the program, reintroduce the season-end celebration (which had been paused for the pandemic), improve irrigation, expand the free seed library and include more student feedback in crop planning, per their goals.
In the near future, Gabrielle seeks to increase engagement through workshops and volunteer shifts, increase yields by tailoring soil amendments and installing low tunnels and trellising, and improve compost systems. Further out, they hope to install an outdoor sink to ease harvesting.
A thriving garden has a wide range of needs, offering a variety of tasks and opportunities for everyone. We welcome all to join our team for volunteer shifts, which are posted on the ECG website from March to November. Despite the chilly temperatures, the Bennion Center is hosting two winter opportunities for volunteers to help build infrastructure for the garden grounds, on Feb. 22 and Mar. 3. Gabrielle and their team are excited to work with you. If you have any questions about garden tasks, please reach out to sustainability@utah.edu.
Whether facilitating learning through doing, providing much-needed sustenance for pollinators, producing delicious veggies and fruits for the Feed U Pantry or simply brightening someone’s day as they walk past, the Edible Campus Gardens have and will continue to positively impact the U community. That’s a wrap for the 2024 season and we look forward to seeing you in the gardens this upcoming growing season! For instructors looking to enhance their curriculum with a visit to the gardens, please visit the ECG webpage to submit a garden collaboration request and the garden team will be in touch.