Student Garden

Our idea

Our experience in Hohenheim and in our various backgrounds has been very fruitful; however, within FRESH, we felt that the deeper understanding and connection to agriculture could not be completed without hands-on application of our acquired knowledge. Therefore, we were inspired to offer an opportunity for students to participate in the conception of a garden and in maintaining its diverse plants. Every season and its harvest bring with it new knowledge, obstacles to overcome, and pure pleasure. This is also true of our first season maintaining and supporting the Student Garden on the University of Hohenheim’s campus. We have taken the theoretical knowledge obtained in the classroom, disseminated it within a group of students and utilized this vast amount of information in planting, growing, and harvesting organic produce. When discussing the most adequate layout for our garden we finally agreed on the international swabian garden, as it combines the urge for diversity with the conservation of traditional swabian practices. It is our intention to emphasis the structure and beauty of Swabian gardens, which highlight the diversity of flowers, fruit trees, and produce in unity. However, as an international agricultural university we plan on incorporating seeds from different regions. Therefore, students visiting Hohenheim can feel welcome to bring parts of their home and culture to the university. It is a new method of learning diversity within this world, while working with our own hands and knowledge. It is also an opportunity for students to exchange and socialize their knowledge and to observe the cycle of food, from the soil to our plate in an honest, natural way. Now that the first plants were harvested we see that there are still improvements to be made. However we are more than satisfied with the results that we received. Thus, we are motivated to continue our efforts for the next growing season and hopefully become a constant part of Hohenheim’s campus. The Student Garden should function as a demonstration of how biological and seasonal horticultural production can be implemented. A variety of local herbs and vegetables shall be shown and the cultivation management will serve as a way to conserve the regional produce in its traditional origin. As a natural sequence, we then intend to offer the diverse products of the garden at campus events and, thus, establish a field to plate circle on campus.

Pupils' Garden Day

From Seed to Plate and from Plate to Planet – this is a basic idea of FRESH. Knowing the story of the food we eat means being aware of its local and global impacts on nature and people.

The loss of this connection in our society due to supermarkets and long distance trade moved us to cultivate our own student organic garden. Taking part in the whole process of production is something we wanted to do and did it now for several years with great experiences.

Several times a year we can share these experiences with pupils from neighboured schools. For more information click here

The Garden

2013

As time passes by plants in our garden are growing big and strong! Our lettuce, strawberries and chamomile are ready to be harvested! Raised bed if full of herbs Bees are happy and bumblebees too! Grass peas ⇓ Kohlrabi is progressing well, wild/perennial plot if full of colors with Good King Henry thriving. and peas are flowering After long and cold winter our garden is waking up!
Lettuce varieties we are growing this year		Our first wild bees	Rhubarb

2012

Tomato in egg-shell	Brezel Knoblauch ;-)	Modified tree sisters	Fava beans
Rainbow Swiss chard	Fennel	Tomato Golden Current	Ladybug - children

2011

Our new garden gate! Thank you Uni Bauamt!	The garden in full on green!
Zucchini!	Edible Kresse flowers and wild flowers!	Corn, beans and pumpkins... also known as the Three Sisters Garden used by Native Americans
Heritage potato harvest from local varieties!	The purple ones even have purple flesh!

2010

Beet root	Corn	Gabi watering
Bush beans	Mint bed	Our carotts
Raised beds	View over the lettuce and potatoes

2009