The Bellevue College Gardening Club recently began preparing a native plant bed in front of the greenhouse. The right plant bed will include dry, desert plants from the eastside of Washington State. At the top of the bed (closest to the greenhouse) they’ll have a thick rock layer to keep roots from drowning. The club’s hydrophilic, Western Washington plants will take the bottom half of the bed, where the water will easily drain from the rocks above to keep a balanced ecosystem. This bed will be used as an educational tool for the botany class on campus, namely Michael Hanson’s Plant ID class, Botany 113, which takes place every Spring! The Gardening Club wants to get students involved in the greenhouse and plant beds as we transition into our Spring months.
Gardening Club’s purpose is to provide a space where students can learn both from their own experiments and from each other how to grow food sustainably. “It is important because it creates a community that promotes sustainable behavior, and positive relationships with the environment and with other organisms, including students,” says Lana Mack, ASG Environmental & Social Responsibility Representative. “Our society favors isolation from other people and the environment, so Gardening Club is working to change that on the campus. It’s amazing how manual labor can build relationships.”
In the garden, the club only uses exclusively organic methods and rely on healthy symbiotic relationships for the food they grow to thrive. This can teach people that healthy food can be produced without any pesticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilize; and it tastes better!
Gardening Club invites you to join them in helping plant native plants!
When: Thursdays @ 11:30
Where: Bellevue College Greenhouse (Rear of School)
All are welcome! No experience necessary!
Questions? Contact:
Lana Mack @
asgvpleg@bellevuecollege.edu
Last Updated January 30, 2015