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Campus Garden Outside Geocentrum
TEXT: KLARA HOLMGREN
FOTO: ISRAA ALY ABDOO
In March 2020, Techna reported on a workshop where 199 student suggestions were collected for the university’s “Environmental Objectives and Action Plan”. Many of them focused on sustainable food and gardening on campus. Now, a year later, the project Campus Garden is in full motion and has been granted funding from Uppsala University’s climate pot. Techna visited them on a rainy workday in their garden at Villavägen 14.
How did the project come about?
OTILIA: “Me and Sagnik met in a community garden where we were both volunteering last summer. We were doing a lot of gardening together. We had so much to talk about, and we did it over gardening which is a fun activity and a great activity to do last summer, especially. That made us talk about spreading this thing.”
SAGNIK: “I was also working on my thesis about “green roofs” – producing food in gardens on rooftops. I was thinking: ‘We could do something like this in a practical way.’”
How did you hear about seeking funding from the university’s climate pot?
SAGNIK: “I also volunteer for Zero Waste Uppsala and they were applying for this climate pot funding. But we never expected that we would be getting it!”
In what ways has the pandemic affected you? Do you think people are more eager to join the project because of it?
OTILIA: “I think that has been a thing we’ve heard a lot of people say – that it’s nice to do something else than sitting by the computer. My body hurts for a good reason, that’s the first time in a while.”
SAGNIK: “We started our work days in the beginning of April and before that we were behind the computers, for like four months. So we were trying to prepare the whole thing in the pandemic. We used to have ‘Monday meetings’ from 7 o’clock and everyone would be complaining: ‘When do we start the gardening?!’”
What will you be planting? How will the garden be organized?
OTILIA: “We have a designated area for a kitchen garden, that’s where we will have the main, annual vegetables. We will be planting kale, onions, pumpkins, zucchinis and corn. We want to experiment and see what works. We’re not really aiming for a huge harvest – we will try to plant to get as much of a variety as possible.”
This will be a permaculture garden – what does permaculture mean, for you?
OTILIA: “One example of what permaculture means for us is that we are using cardboard instead of ground cloth or anything plastic on the ground. We want to preserve as much of the microlife as possible. Now we’ve dug the paths so we can use the soil, so we have had to disturb it a little bit, but we want to try to rebuild it and feed it as much as possible.
Permaculture is like working with the ecosystem that is here and trying to learn about the place, not just implement too much without knowing what’s going on. It’s a lot about observing and getting to know the place and thinking about how nature solves things – using wood chips to try to simulate paths in the forest, for example.”
SAGNIK: “Another principle we follow is to keep a low carbon footprint. We try to get as much stuff as possible from recycling – these cardboards we got from dumpsters. And with the tools, we have asked people to donate, rather than getting it first hand.”
OTILIA: “That’s a part of the permaculture thinking as well, producing zero waste, and trying to use resources creatively, and think of ways to not hurt the planet as much.”
So you have gotten a lot of stuff donated?
SAGNIK: “When we started we didn’t have any tools, so we borrowed from Flogsta food. ”
OTILIA: “Facebook has been great in that sense. In the beginning we didn’t really know how we could receive things, but once we got a hold of that it’s been really easy for people to just reach out to us and be like: ‘Yeah, I have this – do you need it?’ And then they drop it off and might come in on a work day. Now we refer to a lot of things as ‘the table Emanuel brought’ or ‘the axe that Zack brought’.”
So far, what has been the most difficult part of the project?
OTILIA: “There is a lot of bureaucracy and things are moving slowly. There is a hierarchy to get through to get things to happen. And when you have a lot of eager volunteers, who want to get stuff done… combining that with how slow the university can be, that has been difficult. But there are people within the university too who have been really excited about it and have helped us a lot.”
SAGNIK: “Also people have a lot of questions about what will happen in one year, since this project only continues until December. What will happen after that? Answering right now, upfront, is a bit difficult. For us it’s more of an ongoing thing. We didn’t have all the answers from the beginning. We weren’t even sure we would get volunteers but now we have 50.”
What has been the easiest?
SAGNIK: “Getting all these people out. We never would have thought that. You can see how dedicated they are!”
OTILIA: “When we just had the Zoom meetings, before the meeting started we would worry: ‘What if no one shows up?!’ And then when the clock struck seven boom boom boom, everyone joined. I don’t know how many times I’ve cried in those meetings because I’m just moved by how amazing it is to see people show up.”
SAGNIK: “I mean, we just had an idea and then this idea was co-created by so many people coming together – it’s amazing. More and more people are coming in and we have more and more of a bond together. Today we have a potluck lunch.”
What’s been the most valuable part of this project, for you personally?
OTILIA: “The community that’s being built up. Seeing people week after week and realising that we’re building it together. If someone planted a bush over there – that person is going to remember that they planted that bush there. Every single thing that we do, someone did it with their hands. When we pass this place we know that it might look a mess, but it’s our mess.”
SAGNIK: “It makes us proud – that you can see your work on the ground. I have studied sustainable development and we learn a lot of things over there on theory and like making the world a better place and all. But doing something like this and evolving an idea... Seeing this substantial change that we make… yeah, you can say that that’s our mess.”
OTILIA: “We have a designated area for a kitchen garden, that’s where we will have the main, annual vegetables. We will be planting kale, onions, pumpkins, zucchinis and corn. We want to experiment and see what works. We’re not really aiming for a huge harvest – we will try to plant to get as much of a variety as possible.”
SAGNIK: “It makes us proud – that you can see your work on the ground. I have studied sustainable development and we learn a lot of things over there on theory and like making the world a better place and all. But doing something like this and evolving an idea... Seeing this substantial change that we make… yeah, you can say that that’s our mess.”
