My Experience With Community Gardening and Its Effects On Me Psychologically

For my Lang 120 Service Learning class, we are required to do service hours in an area related to food (which I've talked about previously). I've chosen to do the majority of my hours at one of the on campus community gardens, the ROOTS Garden. From the moment I started volunteering there, I fell in love. The entire place is full of magic and beauty, from the hidden mushroom den (pictured below) to the rows upon rows of various plants all around. Everything you see was put there for a reason and serves necessary purposes that I didn't even recognize when I first got there, such as the cardboard scattered around composting and the barrels collecting rainwater.

Recently, the Student Environmental Center has come up with a new project for the ROOTS Garden in which they would plant Black Locust trees and Chestnut trees on the property (because this area of North Carolina used to be covered in forests of them and they were as big as red wood trees) to preserve their history. This is what I have been working on for the past few weeks. So, my job has been to dig enormous holes, sift out compost (pictured below), carry it over to the planting site, plant the trees, and then dig rain catching trenches around them. Unfortunately, after we had completed the project and planted all of the trees, the Vice Chancellor (who lives on the property and needed the area) requested that we relocate them. I completely understand his need to have the land back, but it wasn't easy to dig up our lovely trees and replant them in the pouring rain.

Being in the garden has brought me an unexpected and overwhelming feeling of serenity, happiness, and purpose that I hadn't found yet in college. When I go to the garden, I know there will always be work for me to do and that my presence is helpful and appreciated, and that has meant the world to me. Just thinking about it while sitting here in my cramped, enclosed dorm room brings me a sense of peace. While I know all of this may sound incredibly cheesy, I mean everything I've said. I have never found a place quite so amazing as this. Through this entire experience, I have been able to learn so much about gardening and sustainable practices; also, since I am an environmental studies major this information will be very helpful for me and I'm glad I got to learn it hands on. I hope to continue this work throughout my college career and beyond, maybe even having my own garden just like it. Not only have I become much closer to nature through this work, I've also met a lot of people, from other volunteers to present and former garden managers for ROOTS, and all of them have been extremely nice and accepting. While I could probably go on forever about what I've done here and how it has affected me, I should probably leave it at this: I love the ROOTS Gardens and everyone I have met through it, and I deeply wish everyone could have an experience like this.