Final Project

Case Study Reflection-

The Edible Campus at UC Davis is student-run. Their goal is to revolutionize health and wellness and university land use on the UC Davis campus. The project allows people to “access healthy, fresh food, enjoy the beauty and therapeutic effects of gardens and gardening, access opportunities for hands-on learning, better understand our environment and food system, connect to UC Davis’ agricultural heritage, and learn about edible landscaping, sustainable agriculture, food security, and nutrition.”

I thought this project was especially interesting because I wish we had a larger edible campus initiative at UNE with more gardens. Doing our research on this was pretty easy because it was very interesting and there was plenty of information out there on the web. UC Davis is very well known for its sustainable food practices.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkaPL40JfTHI1UWeJuj-Teg

https://ediblecampus.ucdavis.edu/about/

https://www.ucdavis.edu/

My “Ah-ha” moment in this project was realizing after that UNE already had an edible campus initiative, but it was just not as extensive as the one at UC Davis. I also had a second “Ah-Ha” moment when I learned that the reason for this is because grounds-keeping workers at UNE are very particular in the kind of gardens that grow here because it is so hard to keep vegetable gardens growing neatly due to weeds and not enough people to help take care of them year round. I also realized that UC Davis can basically grow their gardens year round, due to the warm, gentle climate year round. That is out of the question in the rough Maine climate.

Final Project Rough Draft Reflection

Writing the rough draft was actually pretty difficult because of all the information I had to collect. I knew that UNE already had an edible campus initiative, but I didn’t know what kinds of projects were a part of it. I learned that the blueberry garden, the edible plant wall/aquaponics lab, the bee hives, the chestnut trees and the medicinal herbal gardens were all a part of the edible campus initiative.

(To learn more about UNE’s current edible campus initiative as of Spring 2020 go to https://www.une.edu/sustainability/programs-initiatives/edible-campus-initiative )

It was also tricky to figure out how to add on to the project, so we came to the conclusion to propose an herbal garden or gardens on campus with plants that came back every year to cut down on costs. This way it kept the grounds keeping workers happy because herbs are easy to make sure they look nice.

In completing the green sheet I felt unsure whether or not my cost estimates were correct. I had done some research on google as well as used my past knowledge on how expensive it is to keep and herbal garden going, and the price isn’t that high, which was exciting.

Final Project Final Draft Reflection

I found much more clarity about this project/assignment after I received feedback on my rough draft. I was surprised to see I had done okay, since I had originally struggled with narrowing down what the project would be and then with finding information on prices. The zoom call we had prior to the deadline for the rough draft was extremely helpful in helping me complete both drafts. I felt the edits made by my instructor were definitely necessary in helping make the project proposal more clear and doable.

It was helpful to receive comments on how to arrange the project schedule. So much is uncertain right now due to the corona virus and I was unsure of how to make a schedule when I don’t know when the school will open up and when it will be able to focus on sustainability again. As suggested, I wound up planning the schedule for the project as if everything on campus was opening back up for the self isolation May deadline in Maine.

I realized that talking about Unity College as explained in Mitchell Thomashow’s book, in addition to explaining the edible campus initiative at UC Davis, helped my argument on why the expansion of this edible campus initiative at UNE was so important and why it is an attainable goal. Reading the 9 Elements of a Sustainable Campus as well as doing the Case Study project helped me strengthen my argument for expanding the UNE edible campus initiative.