LaFarm Community Garden & Working Farm
Come get outside at the Lafayette community garden! We have a new 2-acre organic garden at Metzgar Fields in Forks Township, built starting in Spring 2009 by students and faculty. The garden has a pressurized rainwater-collection system, a large deer fence, a new storage shed, and a number of plots for college faculty and staff. Students are also working large plots to grow corn, potatoes, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, and pumpkins for use on campus
Sustainability
LaFarm is part of the sustainable food loop at Lafayette. Much of our interaction with the garden allows us to keep up on food waste composting from Lafayette’s dining services, which in turn can help us produce sustainable fruits and vegetables. These products are then used by dining services in the preparation of our meals.
Additionally, the Metzgar Irrigation and Swale Project has been a critical effort in allowing us to get clean, potable water to LaFarm. Lafayette students have worked to developand install a water storage tank, irrigation system, and draining swale to reduce flooding from runoff.
Community Garden Harvest Festival 2009
This project was awarded a grant from the Clinton Foundation, and is a major part of Lafayette’s entry in the US EPA’s “People, Prosperity, and the Planet” sustainable design contest. We envision the garden as a part of a sustainable food loop at Lafayette, and the site at Metzgar Fields will one day be part of a large sustainability education center.
For more information contact Sarah Edmonds at Edmondss@lafayette.edu.
For more information, please visit the Garden websites:
http://garden.lafayette.edu/
http://sites.lafayette.edu/lafarmblog/