by the GeoGarden Team

The GeoGarden project is a community food garden to be constructed and maintained by the Geography Students Association (GSA) on the east side of the Geography Building beginning in the spring of 2012. Community gardens are a form of urban agriculture that reclaim small and/or marginal spaces for the production of food. The GeoGarden will meet UBC’s long-term sustainability goals by promoting awareness of food security and urban agriculture. In addition to meeting these goals, the GeoGarden will also contribute to building community and creating educational opportunities.

The Geography Garden is an opportunity to engage geography students, staff and faculty in new and exciting ways. A student-run garden expands the space over which participants have a direct influence, and more importantly, the space over which their efforts yield tangible results. Their engagement in the garden will create things of value – like carrots, tomatoes, and Swiss Chard – that they can smell and touch. Food they create and later consume. Actively participating in the life cycle of a meal promotes a greater appreciation of the food we consume in general, and in this context the garden can serve as a forum for discussions on food security and the ethics of local vs. global consumption.

One of the main goals of the GeoGarden is to serve as an educational tool to complement lessons learnt in classes. The garden is meant to introduce students, staff, and faculty to urban agriculture and provide an opportunity for them to engage with it.  The garden project also has many components to facilitate reaching out to the wider community to prompt discussion and action on food security and sustainability. The garden’s educational components are: a journal keeping track of garden maintenance by week for future reference; a blog to communicate learnings and journal entries with the public; a case study for Geography classes; signage to inform passers-by about the garden and its plants; a garden resource library in the Geography student lounge; workshops on urban gardening skills in collaboration with other on-campus groups.

The garden will act as focal point for social and academic harmonization which would help create a sense of environmental stewardship. Moreover, the aesthetic appeal of the garden itself would instil a sense of pride in caring for the environment.   The Geo Garden will serve as a model for future food garden projects around campus, and can facilitate their deployment for other communities on campus.