Lobo Gardens

Aryne: "The pollinator garden, because it also doubles as an herb garden and a medicine based garden. We were also able to throw in some tomatoes in here, along with the perennials, making a really nice edible landscape. It's just kind of a multipurpose space and it's cool to walk through."

Talia: “I’m pretty partial to the food forest area back there because that was the group I was assigned to when I took the class. That’s also where the worm bin is, so I spend a lot of time over there checking on the worms. And I like that we have more fruit trees in that area, too.”

Rae:  "The history of this garden started back in 2010/2011, and it was a completely student driven space. But leading up to that, they (the students) were trying to do little food spaces outside of their dormitories. At the time facilities were either were uneducated or just didn't recognize what they saw, and they were pulling everything out (the plants). So the students kept advocating for a space for local gardens, and Travis Mackenzie was one of the lead student advocates for the space, and he now runs the gardening program at Polk Middle School. Really, it's always been student driven, and student organized, and we've done a lot to make it stay that way."

Talia: "Also mentioning that although this is like the main garden, there's a lot of gardens and part of the history was really fighting for the "S" in Lobo Gardens and making sure that it can be something that expands. 

Talia: " I think one of my biggest tools is observation and curiosity, really noticing things before you jump in. Getting your hands in there is important, too. I like doing the readings and learning that way, but I’ve definitely learned the most by just doing and getting my hands dirty. When you take time to observe, you start to see things, like a plant not doing well and maybe needing more nutrients, or something is off with the watering system, or a pest problem. Noticing and observing is probably the biggest tool I rely on " 

Aryne: "The more you can see a plant or get to know a plant, the more you understand it. Also, resource and knowledge collecting. Talia does a lot of work at Polk and I know any time we go there, I feel like I'm learning all these new things because there's just a lot of different approaches. And I think ancestral knowledge can affect the way that we interact with everything, every day, but especially with our plants because we've been doing it since forever"

Rae: "So we do use permaculture practices and regenerative agriculture practices here. We grow everything organically, but we will never be certified organic. For one thing, I think it's a waste of money, because the government dictates how many pesticides can be in this food and still be considered organic and they change it every year. So naturally grown is my preference, for example, this space is called either lasagna gardening or sheet mulching. And this is how you can create soil from nothing. I literally had dust and goat heads in my backyard, and now I have soil, it's life, full of plants and so those are some things that we do. Also, experiential learning is the primary thing for this class, so you have to be here, and that's encouraging students to build a relationship with the land that they're caring for and the best way to do that is to be here."

Rae: "I want them to understand that there are different ways of knowing. and some of the things that we teach here are not new. They're indigenous practices that have been done for millennia. I happen to learn them from a Western white, kind of perspective, but I know after being in this area and industry for 15 years now, that these ways of knowing are not new, and that's what I want students to take away, is that there are different ways of knowing that may have better solutions to the problems that we face, especially with climate change. "

Aryne: "Patience. When you work with food, or any kind of gardening, you're often planning for the next season. Like with the sheet mulch, we won't use this until the springtime, once it's decomposed. You need that mindset of doing something now so it can pay off later. We plant things knowing we’ll harvest them later, and that just takes a lot of patience and practice."

Rae: "And visioning. It takes takes a vision to realize that, for example, this tree we plant today, we will never sit under it's shade.  But future generations will"

Talia: "I would say one of the biggest things I've learned gardening in general and also working with Travis is that we all have an agricultural history. It might be your parents or you a farmer, but it also could be generations ago, and that tie has been severed. But, it's really important to reconnect, and I've found that it's helped me so much with mental health issues and just being grounded because we live in a society that's just not meant for us, and isn't natural. Reconnecting to plants and to the land, fixes a lot of problems, at least in my personal opinion."