Take the time to smell the roses and consider gardening at Rice

By Christina Randall     1/9/13 6:00pm

Last semester, my classmates and I harvested vegetables at the Hanszen College community garden. Some of the students had never harvested before, and we were all smiles as we pulled up radishes from the ground and gave them to the Baker College Kitchen. The class, EBIO 204, was a lot of fun, and I got to keep a bag of radishes (and later added some sweet basil to the mix).

Harvesting vegetables is my favorite part of EBIO 204: Community Garden. This is my third year taking the class, and I find that every year, I get more attached to the garden. The class is one credit and is really casual. Grading is based on a student's participation in the garden. Students are divided up into groups and are allowed to choose which garden they want to work on: Martel College garden, Hanszen garden or Wiess College garden. I personally think Hanszen is the nicest garden. Wiess garden is in a corner and is always overrun with weeds. But ever since I first picked Wiess garden, I feel like it is my own, and I cannot seem to part from it.

Taking care of the gardens is not as easy as it may seem. Most of the students who take the class are surprised at the amount of weeding they need to do. The Rice groundskeeper once said that if you give Mother Nature an empty space, she will fill it. This is especially true at my garden. But maintaining the garden is very relaxing. When I'm out in the garden, it seems I can think clearly. Putting seeds into the ground, watching them steadily grow bigger and bigger, and harvesting the vegetables is so fulfilling. I do not have to worry about my horrible classes, stressful midterms or that assignment I forgot about until last night. I am outside in a relaxed environment, taking care of nature - it does not get much better than that.

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But gardening is not just about the experiences I have on my own. I like community gardening because of the experiences I get with my classmates. It is fun to come together as a class and figure out what to plant. Sometimes, students come up with crazy ideas for what to plant. Sometimes, those ideas actually work. But some of my best memories gardening are when my classmates and I harvested carrots from the ground for the first time and tasted them or when we harvested sweet potatoes and marveled at how many pounds we dug up. We laugh about our gardening mistakes, talk about our favorite plants and tell stories about our lives while we pick weeds. We are not just gardening together, but also learning about each other.

Of course, there are also practical reasons for learning how to garden. Sustainable community gardening produces local, fresh food and can save money on groceries. Off-campus students, like me, tend to take special interest in the gardens. The fresh herbs in the gardens, for instance, are far cheaper and tastier than anything I can buy at the supermarket, so that is another advantage to participating in the course.

Sometimes, I wonder why we do not have more classes like this at Rice. As students, we tend to get so caught up in our majors that we take for granted practical skills like gardening. It is impressive that we can learn about the style of dress in 13th-century Karakorum, but what are the chances we will actually use this knowledge after graduation? However, we all need to eat, and whether it is harvesting radishes or making friends while weeding, gardening is a skill that is always useful.

Christina Randall is a Will Rice College junior.

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