DAILY LOBO new mexico
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tuesday
Garden plots
November 8, 2011
The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
Local growers plan to expand gardens’ growth in urban Burque by Jessica Hitch and Chelsea Erven news@dailylobo.com
Isabel Hees / Daily Lobo Jaih and Sierra Bouldin help their grandmother pick the last of the season’s chiles at the Hardwood community garden on Oct. 24.
Sustainability studies: flashy bins could encourage recycling
Broccoli, brussels sprouts and beans flourish in what was an empty lot filled with broken bottles and used syringes. “It used to be drug dealing spot, real sketchy,” Travis McKenzie, organizer of Project Feed the Hood’s International District garden said. The International District garden, located on Wellesley Drive near Kirtland Air Force Base, is one of Project Feed the Hood’s many community gardens statewide. Community gardens are a growing nationwide trend, and they abound in the university area, making them the perfect place for students to volunteer, local garden organizers said. Organizers of UNM-area community gardens such as the Action Buzz Garden, the Rio Grande Community Farm’s garden and the Growing Awareness Urban Farm all emphasized the sense of social connection and personal empowerment that develops through participating in a community garden. “There is a lot of learning, sharing and character building that goes on in conversations in the gardens and greenhouses, and it is a very good thing,” said Morgan Attema, volunteer organizer of the Growing Awareness Urban Farm. “Get back
mbaseman@unm.edu The sustainability studies class that brought UNM Lobo Gardens and the La Montañita Co-op by the bookstore has a new project — brand new recycling bins designed to make recycling easier. Students in sustainability studies 334 began planning to redesign UNM’s old cardboard recycling bins last semester with the goal of making them more attractive and easier to spot. This is the ninth semester that sustainability studies has offered the class. The class’s professor, Maggie Seeley, said it is interactive and designed to affect change around campus. “We’re actually doing things on campus,” she said. Sustainability studies student Kelly Steinberg said that a quick walk around UNM makes it clear the class’s efforts are needed. “People know they should recycle, but don’t know what or where to recycle,” she said. “I’d love to increase recycling awareness. Recycling is easy, and it’s important to be more green.” The class designed large stickers to place around the bins in order to make them more noticeable. Seeley said the project is designed to educate students about what and how to recycle. “People need more education,” she said. “We’re still finding plastic in the compost area.” The sticker-clad recycling bins made
Daily Lobo volume 116
issue 55
see Gardens PAGE 2
Get growing:
by Max Baseman
Inside the
out into the dirt — it’s educational, healthy and just plain fun.” The Growing Awareness Urban Farm is located at the East Central Ministries building about five miles from UNM, and includes a plant nursery, pottery workshop, apiary, chicken coops, demonstration and community garden and a farm store. Attema said the farm is always looking for student volunteers. The Action Buzz Garden, located about three miles from campus in the downtown Wells Park neighborhood, provides additional opportunities for students to get involved, said Wade Patterson, the garden’s former community planner. He said the organization is seeking a student group to help manage the garden. He said the garden was developed on a former illegal dumping ground, and it offers an opportunity for local residents to grow healthy food, connect with neighbors and network with gardeners throughout the city. “I think at first some of the neighbors were not so sure about what it was we were up to,” he said. “But after the first season, many in the area came to compliment the project, inquire about gardening themselves, or otherwise appreciate the investment of time and energy. Because the lot had
distance from campus in miles
On campus
2 2.5 Jesikha Williams / Daily Lobo One of the new on-campus recycling bins designed by sustainability studies students. They are bright and colorful in an effort to draw students’ attention to recycling. their debut in the dorms in the last two semesters. They are being tested against the plain bins to determine which bins collect the most recyclables. The project’s next step will be to replace all of the old boxes on campus. Steinberg said that as a community UNM has the resources to make recycling a much larger part of campus life. “College has the ability to be more green because we are a small community,” she said. “We have our own recycling.”
Get it while you can See page 3
Free
4 5 Artist Ave. See page 5
Lobo Gardens
Various locations on campus. Food goes to the La Posada dining hall and on-campus La Montañita Co-op. unmlobogardens.wordpress.com
Project Feed the Hood
Statewide, closest garden on the corner of Wellesley Drive and Thaxton Avenue SE 505-247-8832 www.projectfeedthehood.org/food-justice/
Action Buzz Garden
Wells Park, 1255 8th Street NW Features rentable 8-by-4-foot raised beds. $25 a season 242-6367 ext. 119
Growing Awareness Urban Farm
East Central Ministries, 123 Vermont Street Features a plant nursery, pottery workshop, apiary, chicken coops, demonstration and community garden and a farm store. 505-266-3590 www.growingawarenessurbanfarm.com
Rio Grande Community Farm
Los Poblanos Open Space Montaño Road, west of 4th Street Features 110 rentable rows, access to tools, and free seeds. $40 a year Contact garden@riograndefarm.org
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