Edible Campus

Campuses across the country have been creating edible campus programs to support community well-being and cooperative land management while enjoying the fruits of everyone’s labor. This program is designed to broadly introduce students to the history, science, design and management of edible landscapes while putting these to practice on the Evergreen Olympia campus. Faculty will utilize the Permaculture Design process to frame and integrate the program themes while introducing edible campus case studies to illustrate what others have learned about the benefits and required resources associated with successful projects.  

Fall quarter, this program will broadly introduce students to the history, science, design, and management of edible landscapes while putting these to practice on the Evergreen Olympia campus. Faculty will utilize the Permaculture Design process to frame and integrate the program themes while introducing edible campus case studies to illustrate what others have learned about the benefits and required resources associated with successful projects.   

In Garden Design and Management students will be introduced to design thinking as a community process, engage in campus garden areas, and use day field trips to visit other edible campus and community garden projects, learning how to evaluate sites through an edible landscape lens. In Soils and Growing Media, they will be introduced to the soil science concepts needed to understand and evaluate mineral soils and blend growing media that are used across in-ground, vertical, and rooftop gardens. In Applied Horticulture students will be introduced to horticultural terms, concepts, and practices for the cultivation of edible annuals, biennials, and perennials. Diverse edible plants will be introduced while students will create plant profiles for a compendium of plants suited to our campus climate and seasonal production goals.  

The program structure is designed to incorporate community and participatory management structures which require students to work collaboratively and professionally to develop networks not only across the class, but across campus and beyond.   

Winter quarter will address garden and landscape design for community gardens and food forests while focusing on leadership structures, fundraising, systems thinking, and visual communication as well as utilities, fencing, water and irrigation systems, accessibility, pathways, plant selections, and design documents. In Soils and Growing Media, we will add soil biology and composting processes while students research options to integrate campus landscape and food waste into systems to regenerate soil fertility. In Applied Horticulture you will learn about dormant season plant care and propagation techniques along with how to select plant communities to support human nutrition and well-being goals, pollinator species, and other beneficial invertebrates and fauna.  

Additionally, there will be a significant field component to this class, regardless of weather. We will spend a significant amount of time outdoors and there will be a number of day field trips. Students will need sufficient and appropriate gear to be comfortable outdoors in the highly variable Pacific Northwest fall and winter conditions.