Northwestern students planted an unauthorized community garden Wednesday near the Foster-Walker Complex – but don’t expect to see full-grown vegetables sprouting up anytime soon.
The five students will dissemble an Evanston-NU community garden they planted this weekend because they did not receive university permission and because the plot was already planted with grass seeds.
The group is aiming to improve communication between Evanston residents and NU students, promote alternative farming techniques such as organic fertilizers and educate students about efficient land use.
“Ideally it would be a community garden with Evanston,” said Phil Campanile, a Weinberg junior involved in the garden project. “One of our goals is to create bridges.”
The students also hope to work with Facilities Management to establish a permanent garden on campus.
“We were sort of under the impression that we wouldn’t be allowed to keep (the garden) since it was done guerrilla-style,” said Ryan Murdock, a Speech junior.
Murdock said the students who planned the plot hope their work will have long-term effects.
“The idea is that this can spawn an actual community garden in the future that will be permanent,” he said.
The students met at 5 a.m. to plant corn, pumpkins, squash and sunflowers. They ditched their original idea to plant along Sheridan Road when they spotted the vacant plot of land near Foster-Walker filled with only dead grass.
The group also planted a single bean across the street and placed a sign there pointing interested passers-by to the nearby community garden.
Group members circulated a petition at the site encouraging NU officials to allocate space for a garden on campus and urging the university to look at more natural forms of landscaping.
Jane Kim, who signed the petition on her way to the bus Wednesday morning, said she thought creating a community garden was a good idea.
“It’s nice to have green space,” said Kim, a Weinberg senior.
Kim said a garden could have another purpose besides sprucing up the campus: providing learning opportunities for NU students.
“It will be educational, especially for environmental science classes or ecology,” she said.
Lizzy Gore, a Speech junior involved in planting the garden, said she hoped the project would catch the attention of students and increase campus awareness of land use issues.
“We’re here for four years, so you don’t generally pay attention to what’s going on,” she said. “We’re trying to increase student involvement in the land.”
