Staff and students with a passion for gardening can indulge in the Community Garden. Opened last year, this vegetable garden next to the Hortus blew into the year this month with the trimming of its 16 beds and the planting of the first crops. 'Nice to have an extra place to meet next to your work.'
On Friday afternoon, 25 February, seven employees and one student will gather for the first 'chore day' this year in the Community Garden, an initiative of three Radboud University employees, including Annemarijke Graat of the Campus & Facilities division. This Friday, Graat will be tinkering along, with the agenda including applying compost to the 16 flower beds. 'But not only people with green fingers are welcome here. You can also use the garden to hold meetings with your team, for example; think of the garden as an extra meeting room in the greenery, too.'
The chore days have a dual purpose: besides rooting in the ground, the garden is also set up as a place for relaxation and meeting for students and staff. Céline Sandmann, working in the Education Office of the Faculty of Letters, spends Friday afternoon tidying up the three containers of strawberry plants. Interest in gardening was something she inherited from home. 'Gardening has long been my interest, I don't have my own vegetable garden. I do know about such a garden through my parents.'
'Happy vegetables'
Nikki Panjer, project controller at the Faculty of Science, is drawing the planting and harvesting schedule in the garden this year, for all 16 beds. 'There's a lot of knowledge involved in that. I looked up a lot myself via the internet.' Panjer also gained knowledge in a course of 'Gelukkige groentes' (Happy Vegetables), an initiative by two ecological kitchen gardens in Malden and Ooij.
Panjer's sowing calendar shows that by the end of February a number of crops can already be planted in the ground, the first this afternoon being garlic. At the designated bed, student Pam (pre-master's degree in Art History) is busy measuring and digging holes for the garlic. Pam already occasionally worked in her mother's vegetable garden. 'I love being outside, being able to enjoy nature. Also good to be physically busy for a change, we are already in our heads so much.' Besides, working together is more fun than gardening on your own, says Pam, the only student present this afternoon. 'It would be nice if more students come to help next time.'
Interested in helping out at a chore day? Or to use the garden anyway? Join the Team Group the Community Garden. The next chore day is on Wednesday 27 March.
