2018 ASHS Annual Conference

A case study was conducted to investigate the use of the MSU Community Garden as a living classroom for teaching, research, and outreach programs. The Mississippi State University Community Garden initiated its first planting in April, 2017. Designed by associate professor Cory Gallo’s landscape architecture design/build studio, twelve raised beds were designed and built in the garden in 2017. Construction of the MSU community Garden is planned to be complete in 2018 with a total number of 30 raised beds and an orchard. From a teaching standpoint, three courses including the Gardening Experience (PSS 1113), Grow Your Own Salads and Soups: Vegetable Gardening (LA 1001), and Community Food Systems (LA/PSS/FNH 4990/6990) are using the community garden as experiment site, where students gain hands-on experience of growing vegetables. At the MSU Community Garden, students can volunteer to work in the garden and serve as creative outlets for them. The Community Garden also serves as a base for graduate and undergraduate student research. The garden will provide demonstrations of new and sustainable gardening practices and be available to student, staff, and faculty members in MSU and to Starkville citizens . The community garden provides opportunity to involve people of all ages in promoting inspiration for gardening and a sense of pride in the work that is accomplished there. Therefore, the community garden is making an impact for people in and outside MSU by increasing health consciousness of the community and promoting a healthy local food system.