In
January 2012, a group of Amherst students, faculty and alumni began work on a
campus permaculture garden. Though the
garden only measures a quarter-acre, the space will be filled with planted
fruits and vegetables, which will annually yield an estimated 1,000 pounds of
food to be used in a nearby dining hall. Flowers and perennials will be grown
in the garden as well. Amherst volunteers moved roughly 250,000 pounds of
compost and soil from the space, which allowed it to be sheet-mulched. The
permaculture garden, which should be operational this summer, was the
brainchild of Ryan Harb, who earned a master’s degree in green building from
Amherst and was recently appointed as the school’s first Director of
Sustainability.
Check out the UMass Permaculture Documentary Series:
This post was created by Madison Jones
We're actually in our second growing season now! It started in 2010 and to date we've supplied over 1000 pounds of produce to the campus dining commons. The initiative now has consisted of over 1300 volunteers. Thanks for writing about us, and to learn more visit: www.UMassPermaculture.com
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