LMU LAUNCHES ORGANIC GARDENING PROJECT AND COMMUNITY GARDEN

February 24, 2010 - Harrogate, Tennessee—The Lincoln Memorial University (LMU) Board of Trustees have granted use of the multi-acre Pace Farm on the Harrogate, Tenn., campus to what is now known as the LMU Organic Gardening Project. The collaborative effort, led by local gardening expert, author, television personality and newspaper columnist Pat Biggerstaff, will include a community garden and composting.

Initiated in January, the project came about when Biggerstaff approached LMU administration with the desire to plant a community garden on campus. The University’s student-driven Earth Club had also approached administration with the idea to start composting on campus and use the compost to support a community garden. Biggerstaff was invited to speak to the Earth Club. With the help of Earth Club advisor and Professor of Biology Aggy Vanderpool, a land-use request for the Pace Farm was submitted to the Board’s Property Committee.

“If people my age don’t teach the people younger than them about gardening it will become a lost art,” Biggerstaff said. “I am really trying to reach the students and this project should open their minds to gardening.”

Open to community members, students, faculty and staff of LMU, Biggerstaff holds weekly meetings at 5 p.m. on Monday nights in LMU’s Schenck Center for Allied Health. The meetings include lessons on organic gardening from guest lecturers and experts.

Weekend work sessions are held at the garden when weather permits. Seven raised gardening beds have already been completed with volunteer labor and donated lumber. Additionally, seed has been donated and the first bed was planted on Sunday.

Participants can build and maintain their own beds with the benefit and aid of the weekly gardening class and they are able to take home their own produce. Additionally, community beds will be planted and the produce grown in them will be sold at local Farmer’s Markets to raise funds to sustain the garden.

The composting activities will get underway in the coming months as more of the land is cleared.

Lincoln Memorial University is a values-based learning community dedicated to providing educational experiences in the liberal arts and professional studies. The main campus is located in Harrogate, Tennessee. For more information about the undergraduate and graduate programs available at LMU, contact the Office of Admissions at 423-869-6280 or e-mail at admissions@lmunet.edu.

CAPTION 1: LMU Organic Gardening Project Director Pat Biggerstaff and volunteer Chuck Reams move debris on the Pace Farm at LMU in preparation of installing raised gardening beds for the Organic Gardening Project. Photo by Vicky Reams.

<< previous page