Lafayette Organic Gardening

Organic gardening has been a dream of Lafayette Environmental Awareness and Protection for a long time. We are so excited this project is getting off the ground this year and it’s thanks to so many people from all over campus including faculty, staff, administration and students. So, here’s the story….

Let me start with composting. For those of you that don’t know much about it, Lafayette started a food-waste composting program in Fall 2007. This was due to the efforts of the most amazing, Mickey Adelman and Professor Art Kney. The “compost team” was developed as a project in both LEAP and SEES, two student organizations (See the Lafayette Sustainability section of the site for more information on these clubs). A large group of students met at the beginning of the fall 2007 semester and built two composting units designed by Mickey. We built a large 3-bin unit and a “compost tumbler” and kept them in the parking lot behind the Acopian Engineering building. Mickey and his team picked up trash from the Farinon dining hall once a week on a golf cart, picked through it for noncompostables, and mixed it with grass and leaves. Students were then assigned a day of the week to aerate and observe the compost, and Lafayette composting began! We made a lot of compost and had a successful semester.

The next semester Mickey went abroad and left Jenn Bell to lead the team. She expanded the composting operations by building 4 more tumblers and picked up trash twice a week, this time with a pick-up truck. The student compost team also expanded from about 8 to about 20 members!

Over the summer, Jenn did Excel research with Professor Kney. During this time, Jenn worked on the “Composting infrastructure development grant “proposal asking for two “Earth Tub” composting units and two food pulpers/water extractors which would be installed directly in the dining halls. If this grant is received, we would ideally be able to compost all food waste from all dining locations on campus, creating an institutionalized system.  This proposal was possible with the help of many, many people! We had help from Diane Elliott, Maurice Luker, and many more faculty, administration, and staff from all over campus. We received letters of support from the City of Easton, the West Ward, Senator Wonderling, Representative Freeman, Easton hospital, Northampton County, and more.

During the summer, a new project was brewing: Professor Andy Smith’s Corn on the Quad (See the Lafayette Sustainability section) project. While working in the fields, Professor Andy Smith, Prof. Dave Brandes, Prof. Art Kney, and Jenn all began talking about a more permanent, large-scale garden. A friend recommended a new grant opportunity to Jenn, so she began working with Prof. Brandes for a grant proposal to the Clinton Foundation.

In September we found out we received the Clinton Global Initiative Outstanding Commitment Award!  This money was to be used for a deer fence, a roof rainwater collection system, and signage. The garden will be divided into two sections, one large section for students to tend with the hope that the veggies will eventually be served in the dining halls, and the other section for faculty, staff, administration, and students to have a small garden of their own with fourty-four 2ox40 foot plots for lease.

The fall 2008 semester, Professors Dave Brandes, John Wilson, Andy Smith, and Derek Smith and Jenn worked with the administration to plan the location and logistics of the garden.

Now, it’s spring 2009 and we’re ready to start gardenin’!
Jenn