Edible landscaping can be found throughout campus. These gardens help to diversify the look of our campus as well as provide opportunities for cultivating collaboration across UMD colleges and departments with UMD Facilities Management.
UMD shifted the focus of its Edible Landscape Project from an experiment in cold-climate urban agriculture to a program that focuses on empowering students and campus groups to learn about gardening and celebrate local agriculture with the campus community. In Spring 2011, UMD Facilities Management hired an Edible Gardens Coordinator to facilitate the creation and coordination of over a dozen campus gardens. Most of the produce in the gardens is being grown for educational purposes, such as developing gardening skills, nutrition workshops and other campus events, and creating culturally specific dishes. Materials, plants, and support for the gardens are provided by Facilities Management.
Using the map to the right, you can explore all of the campus gardens
To read about and explore the 2012 gardens, click here.
This garden is being grown to promote healthy eating at UMD Food Services. Herbs and edible flowers will be used by the Catering Department. Salad greens will be used by Food Service staff to enhance menu selections, along with produce grown at the UMD Farm. Please do not pick this produce yourself.
Grown by: Food Services
The Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures is growing vegetables and herbs to be used in the preparation of culturally specific dishes in September. The French, Spanish, German and Russian Clubs are all lending a hand to tend the garden over the summer. Each club will prepare a series of dishes to demonstrate a specific culinary tradition. Students from the language clubs and their advisers will be tending the garden and harvesting the produce throughout the growing season.
Grown by: Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
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The Tiger Lily (Lilium lancifolium) is a species of lily native to northern and eastern Asia. It is commonly found in USDA zones 3-7 in the United States as an attractive ornamental and can survive when temperatures drop below -40°C. The edible, frost tolerant bulbs are believed to have been cultivated in China from ancient times. The plant has dark orange-colored flowers with black, somewhat raised spots, which give the flower the spotted appearance of a tiger. Depending on the variety, some bulbs taste sweet, and some taste a little bitter. Don't try it if you are allergic to onion and related plants. This garden will introduce others to an exotic root vegetable and appreciate the tradition of another culture. It's all right to pick a flower, but please be sure that others remain.
Grown by: Prof. Junhua Wang and son Yuqi Chen
It is estimated that only 15% of UMD students eat the recommended daily servings of fruits and vegetables. The Fresh 15 Garden is being grown to plant the seeds of a balanced diet and easy food choices while in college. Through this plot, students in Health Services student groups will learn about planting, watering, maintaining, and harvesting a garden. Produce from this plot will be used for nutrition and dorm room food prep workshops, including Salsa and Smoothies, Sandwich Art, and Oodles of Noodles (watch for dates for these great workshops). Health Services hopes to impart to students the value of gardening for a healthy lifestyle, the nutritional benefits of fruits and vegetables, and the rewards of living in harmony with the earth. Feel free to sample the produce from this garden!
Grown by: Health Services
Potatoes were originally domesticated by innovative, indigenous farmers from the Andean region of South America. They were a staple food for many indigenous peoples and many others after it was exported from its native region. This garden contains several different types of potatoes researched by the Garden Gurus team in the Spring Anthropology Senior Seminar. This garden was planted by May term Ethnobotany students and will be harvested by students in the fall class. Each variety will be measured for yield and evaluated for future planting as part of the UMD Sustainable Agriculture Project. Grown alongside the potatoes are squash. Please do not pick the produce, it will be harvested and used in projects by Fall Ethnobotany students.
Grown by: Ethonobotony class with help from Edible garden staff
Aromatic herbs from this garden will be dried for use as tisanes (herbal teas), to be sampled during "Tea at the Tweed" events during the school year. The garden is sponsored by the UMD Women's Commission and grown with help from commission members. Pinch a leaf to experience their unique fragrances, but please do not pick them.
Grown by: UMD Women's Commission
This garden contains a variety of edible
flowers. In the planter are Globe Artichoke,
grown for their large edible buds, and
'Margarita' Portulacca, a plant with edible
leaves that acts as living mulch. Some of the
buds will go to UMD Catering for topping
salads. Minibloom Nasturtium, a peppery
tasting flower, is also being grown for its seed,
as they are not widely available. Although
the bed is small, people are invited to
sample flowers sparingly; if they are all
picked there will be none to see.
Grown by: Deb Schubat
Anyone can participate in creating a sustainable food system, container gardens take up very little
space and can be grown just about anywhere -
decks, patios, rooftops, or next to a bicycle rack on
a college campus! Items that may have served one
purpose can be recycled and used for something
completely different - like a container garden. The
produce from this garden is being grown to make
potato salad in the fall. This garden is also being
grown to bring attention to bikes on campus. After
all, they are good for your health in so many ways!
Please refrain from picking from this garden,
and join UMD Continuing Education for some
potato salad at the end of summer
Grown by: UMD Continuing Education
This garden is being grown for the annual Taste of Kirby event, in September, produce from the garden will be used to make pizza so that students can get a taste of what Kirby Student Center students and staff have achieved. Pizza produce is being grown within a marigold border, resembling pizza slices. Please do not pick the produce yourself, however with a bountiful crop the gardeners are glad to share.
Grown by: Kirby Student Center
Students planted and maintain this garden to be used as an educational tool, broadening their own gardening experience and sharing the experience with others, while cultivating a space on campus that can be used to grow food for years to come. The produce is being grown to be used at SFSA events and for the benefit of the gardeners. Everyone is invited to take part in maintaining and harvesting the garden, however be sure to leave food for others.
Grown by: Students for Sustainable Agriculture
With rising food costs, students in the International Club decided to grow their own produce to lower that burden and cook cultural dishes. This collection of planters is being grown by first-time gardeners who want to learn something new and get outside during the summer.
Grown by: International Club
Through interdepartmental collaboration, this garden is being grown to encourage outdoor learning and healthy eating, as well as educate children about the environment. The Robert F. Pierce Clinic will include adaptive, therapeutic gardening activities for children and adults with mobility restrictions.
Grown by: Enweyang Ojibwe Language Immersion Nest, Minnesota Sea Grant, Fine Arts Academy, Robert F. Pierce Clinic
Juneberry bushes can be found throughout campus, from the terraces outside the Kirby Student Center and Engineering Building, to the front entrance of the Life Science Building. The bushes are full of fruit that ripen in mid to late July. In 2011 several buckets of the fruit was collected by Facilities Management and given to UMD Catering for use in making desserts.
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