IU Office of Sustainability

IU Campus Garden Initiative

The campus garden is an IU Office of Sustainability project that aims to foster environmental and social sustainability by creating interactive, edible gardening spaces on the IU-Bloomington campus.

Gardens * Designing an Edible Campus * Volunteering* Donations * Get Involved * Photos

The Gardens

New Central Campus Garden

The IU Campus Garden Inititiave annouces a new campus garden! Beginning in November, garden volunteers will contribute their time and energy to the preparation of a new space for cultivation – the initiative’s first central campus garden at Hilltop Garden and Nature Center. This 8,500 square foot garden will increase the edible gardening space overseen by the Campus Garden Initiative by almost 10-fold.

Bryan House Gardens

Located at heart of the Bloomington Campus, Bryan House is home to 900 square feet of gardening space and the site of the first campus community garden. By modeling different ways to produce food in a campus setting, the Bryan House gardens will serve as a pilot for future gardening projects on campus, as well as a space for students, faculty, and staff to engage in the process of growing food.

Volunteer with Us

During the 2011 Fall semester, students, faculty, and staff are invited to come work in the dirt at the Bryan House every Wednesday from 4:00 to 5:00 pm. Tools and gloves are provided.

Please share this opportunity with your peers. If you are enrolled in a course or work with an organization that you think might be interested in this garden initiative, please email iugarden@indiana.edu.

Donations to the Campus Garden Initiative

Many thanks for the following donations to the Campus Garden Initiative:

• Stanley Hicks, grandfather to The Center For Community Empowerment’s Michael Hicks, has been growing Paledino Hot Peppers for 40 years in Bedford, Indiana. This pepper’s seeds were given to Hicks by Mr. Paledino of Oolitic, Indiana, whose family brought the seeds to Indiana from their garden in Italy in the early 1900’s. This is one of several peppers to be grown at the Bryan House. Other donations include: sweet genovese basil, red cyenne hot pepper, Thai orange hot pepper, dry pole bean, Kentucky wonder pole bean, crimson cascade radish, German yellow heirloom tomato, pink brandy wine heirloom tomato, Bulgarian druzba heirloom tomato, and broom corn.
• Keith Johnson kindly donated the following seeds: common dill, swiss chard mix, kale, fennel, tall marigolds, leeks, tromboncino summer squash, celery, and chick peas.
• Teresa Birtles provided us with lovely German bush beans.
• Good Earth Compost and Mulch donated much needed compost.
• The Indiana Daily Student has generously donated day-old papers for use in the garden.

Get Involved

For more information on the IU Garden Initiative or to sign up for the IU Garden Listserv, please email the Garden Coordinator, Stephanie Hopkins, at iugarden@indiana.edu.

Stay up to date on food related issues on the IU –Bloomington campus by reading the IU Garden Initiative Blog at http://iugarden.wordpress.com/.

Click here for a map of community gardens and wild food sources in Bloomington!