from GSJ – 11/16/01
Students and neighbors harvest garden of bounty
Brown's Urban Environmental Laboratory offers city gardeners a chance to get their hands dirty.
Hidden behind a fence on Angell Street, on a plot of land that was once a parking lot, lies a patch of country that seems far removed from the hustle and bustle just beyond its gates. Within these walls some two dozen devoted gardeners from the community and campus till the rich organic soil — from the first tolerable day in March to the last one in November.
The land is part of Brown's Urban Environmental Laboratory and is divided into 18 highly coveted plots. Anyone in the community is welcome to apply for one, but they're generally all spoken for by the end of February. There is no charge for use of the plots — just a commitment of time each month to the communal areas that border them.
While only vegetables, fruits and herbs are grown here, it's clear that some of the gardeners look for more than mere sustenance from their labor. Carefully arranged vines of squash, heads of lettuce, and knots of herbs give some plots an ornamental appearance that could compete with many a flower garden.
But it is, after all, the taste of that just-picked heirloom tomato and the satisfaction of creating a meal from one's own crops that bring gardeners back year after year. At monthly pot-luck suppers and an end-of-the-season Harvest Festival, students and local residents of all ages enjoy the fruits of their labor while sharing success stories and gardening tips.
It is that camaraderie with the outside community that outgoing garden coordinator Jesse Cowan, a senior at Brown, has most enjoyed.
"When you're here in college, you can get into a little bubble," she says."Everyone around you is 18 to 22. It's nice spending time with people of different ages and from out in the community. I feel more balanced."
Grapes, berries and even hops for the home brewer grow in the communal gardens around the plots. To the amazement of many, a fig tree has survived through four or five winters, this year producing a particularly high yield.
Two undergraduates — Margaret Sweitzer-Hamilton and Elizabeth Giancola — are the current UEL garden coordinators. (Garden coordinators are paid and hired by the UEL.) In February they will begin reviewing applications and assigning the plots. By the end of the month, gardeners champing at the bit will be found in the UEL greenhouse, giving their seedlings a head start. As soon as the ground has thawed and is free of snow, they're back outside again, happily digging around in their carefully composted dirt.
"This is exactly what I've been searching for," says Sweitzer-Hamilton, who grew up on farms in Kentucky."It's a chance to get my hands in the earth and meet interesting people."
For more information about the UEL garden, call Sweitzer-Hamilton at 867-6709