UT Arlington and City of Arlington collaborate on community garden

UT Arlington is collaborating with the City of Arlington to design a community garden on University property.

A community garden is a piece of land gardened by a group of people that provides access to fresh produce and plants and offers satisfying labor, neighborhood improvement, a sense of community, and a connection to the environment. They are publicly functioning in terms of ownership, access, and management. Community gardens encourage an urban community's food security, allowing citizens to grow their own food or donate what they have grown.

ECOS initiated the Campus Community Garden, created during the spring of 2003. This organic garden will use as many sustainable agricultural practices as possible in order to showcase environmentally friendly gardening techniques.

In addition to creating nature connected recreational opportunities for UT Arlington community, the mandate of the garden is to:

•Promote local, organic food production by producing food in a sustainable manner, without the use of pesticides, chemicals, or genetically modified plants.

•Provide the campus community with an opportunity to apply classroom knowledge within a living laboratory.

•Provide organic, local, fresh, and healthy food for garden volunteers and the wider Arlington community.

The garden will be located next to the SWEET Center and will be started in Spring 2011. http://www.uta.edu/maps/map?id=envr

The UT Arlington Sustainability site is at http://www.uta.edu/sustainability/

I'll post photos of this as I know more about the location and construction of the garden.