The Orchard Garden

One of my favorite parts of being alive and present at UBC is the Orchard Garden. I love that it exists, I love that it was created.  I love that students, my own friends and classmates daily steward its care, taking the responsibility for its seasons, its growth, and its very presence in our campus. I love that I study in a building that has a garden as you walk out the door, and that this garden is so manifold in its purposes.  It doubles as a classroom as students studying Education find ways to connect place and person.  I love that the delicious food prepared at Agora often hails from this gem, that the very hands that grew the kale, the onions, the garlic are those that pass it to the hands of those preparing fragrant stews, robust omelets, and new culinary creations. I love the symbiotic relationship that is demonstrated in the presence of a real, living, producing garden in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems, and the ways in which this space exemplifies new possibilities for urban food engagement. I love when my class, Global Resource Systems, spends time together working in the garden.  As second, third, fourth, and even fifth year students work alongside of our program coordinator and director to accomplish something, we need all of our hands.  We discover that in the garden, we all contribute.  Our knowledge is translated into organic action and we are grounded in our inter-dependence with one another and the earth upon which we stand. I love that though the Orchard Garden is physically moving, it will live on in a new place, ever resilient, ever beautiful.