ASHS 2024 Conference

Organic gardening (Horticulture 2525) is a mandatory class for students in the LSU medicinal plants and sustainable crop production concentrations, where the focus of the lab is for students to intensively grow their own garden plot of vegetables and herbs in the fall semester. Students are mandated to grow at least 10 different crops and to use both direct seeding and using their own transplants to establish, maintain throughout the semester, and then harvest their plot. The course is a service-learning course and over the years the class have worked in establishing and maintaining community and school gardens, harvesting/gleaning vegetables from garden plots, and assisting with a local farmers market. The most recent classes focused on growing food in community plots for the LSU Food Pantry, a local food bank that is used by many students. Each week students are required to work in the community rows from the beginning of working and shaping the beds, applying and incorporating fertilizer, planting seeds directly into the beds, transplanting crops, and setting up trickle and overhead irrigation systems. Students maintain their own plots as well as the community rows by fertilizing, and applying organic pest management measures as needed. The harvest from the individual plots and the produce is left up to the students and all the students harvest, wash, pack and prepare the product from the community rows for donation each week to the campus food pantry. Students are encouraged to participate my transporting the produce at least once, from the field or the cooler at the teaching facility to the food pantry. Many of the students have indicated that the class is the first time they had grown any plants in a garden and they used the garden harvest in their own kitchens. Students also indicated that they learned about the needs of the community and students and several also became aware of the food pantry and its services. In the fall of 2023 over 1,800 pounds of fresh vegetables were donated to the campus food pantry. Data from the students’ perceptions and comments from the semester will be presented.