Cal State Fullerton students learn how to plant and grow vegetables, particularly heirloom varieties that their ancestors may have grown and harvested centuries ago, at the university’s small but active campus garden — just one of many benefits the garden provides for students.
Faculty close to the project hope it can be expanded.
“We’re trying to foster a sense of community on campus and highlight issues of sustainability and bring awareness to food systems, so people have an idea where their food comes from,” said John Bock, professor of anthropology and director of CSUF’s Center for Sustainability, who helped bring the idea into reality.
As the winter crops come to an end, the garden is transitioning to the warmer season. “We’ll soon put in zucchini, squash, greens, lettuces, kale and onions,” said Bock, adding that varieties of peas, beans and corn will be planted, too.
“We’re starting to grow Navajo copper corn, a small corn plant the Diné (Navajo people) grow on their reservation in Arizona and New Mexico,” he said. “We want students to know we are growing plants developed and used by cultures for thousands of years. Some of the squash comes from the Raramuri (Tarahumara) people from Chihuahua.”
Students are enthusiastic about growing their own food.
“I’ve had more than a hundred students say that working in the garden was the most important experience they’ve had in their college career — that it was especially meaningful to plant something and then eat it,” Bock said. “When they pick a vegetable, put in their mouth and chew it, knowing it came from the tiny seeds they planted, they always say ‘This is best chard or best lettuce I’ve ever had.’”
A 2018 study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics showed that among college students, gardening experience was associated with a higher vegetable and fruit intake.
Located between the Humanities and Social Sciences building and Gordon Hall, the campus garden first began in April 2022 with a raised bed. Today, “the entire area of the campus garden is approximately 2,000 square feet, and the garden structure itself is about 250 square feet. We have a California native plant garden that fills 1,000 square feet of the space,” said Bock, who coordinates the garden’s activities.
One requirement for all seeds that are planted is that they must come from plants that have been open pollinated — in other words, they breed true, are not owned by a seed company and were pollinated by bees, birds or weather. A second requirement is that the plants must be heirloom or culturally significant.
“We work with small suppliers such as Native Seed Search in Tucson whose seeds come from Indigenous groups in the Americas,” Bock said. “We also get seeds from Baker Creek, which has seeds from all over the world, and Truelove, which specializes in seeds from the Black diaspora.”
Environmental science students use the garden for research, as do students of health and nutrition. Jennifer Langenwalter, an adjunct faculty member who teaches a class about obesity, brings her students to the garden. “I’m teaching them about growing your own food,” she said. “With obesity, we try to emphasize a positive approach to eating and nutrition. Some students had never put their hands in dirt.”
The campus garden features a sign that reads “By us, for us,” and each garden bed is planted by a student club, organization or department. Caring for, or shepherding, a garden bed is so enjoyable that there is a waiting list to do so each semester, despite the constant work gardening requires. “Shepherds are responsible for all aspects of their bed during the semester — planting, weeding, and watering,” Bock said.
Recent rain has caused the wildflowers to bloom in the section of California native plants, making the garden a magnet for insects and birds that help pollinate plants, and within a few months, vegetables will be ready for picking. “When we have extra produce to harvest, it goes to Associated Students Inc. food pantry, which has been very helpful,” Bock said.
He works with the Urban Agriculture Community-based Research Experience or U-ACRE, a federally funded urban agriculture project. “U-ACRE provides seeds as a donation and also starts seedlings at the Arboretum. Shepherds are given seeds, seedlings and chemical-free soil amendments for their garden beds,” Bock said.
“Most of our students have no experience with growing anything,” he said. “The garden provides exposure to what it’s like to grow plants and think about varieties. People need to know how our food system works.”
The Center for Sustainability received a small grant from the CSU Chancellor’s Office, said Bock, who is planning to put in a new bed featuring a “SOXX garden” — 6-feet-long fabric tubes filled with planting mixture with small holes for seedlings.
He’s also hoping to raise funds to add two more beds in the garden this year.
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