The new community garden at the University of Illinois Springfield is small — only a 20-by-20 foot plot with raised beds — but it has in it everything but the kitchen sink.
Wait — that’s in there, too, along with a repurposed bathtub from the nearby Strawbridge-Shepherd House on campus.
Organizers intend for the UIS Campus Community Garden to serve as a model for sustainability, to build community and to provide hands-on learning.
Megan Styles, assistant professor of environmental studies, said the idea for the garden came from two students in her Introduction to Sustainability class who decided to make a garden their class project last fall.
A core group of about six students, aided by a dozen or more other volunteers, now work on the garden, which was dedicated by UIS Chancellor Susan Koch on Friday.
Koch, who cut a green burlap ribbon that will be repurposed in the garden, said she liked the idea that it is a learning lab.
“It is so hands-on and an example of the personalized education we provide,” Koch said.
The story was reported by The State Journal-Register on April 30, 2016.
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