Abstract
Permaculture is a system of ecological design that aims to create more sustainable communities: its principles reinforce to participants understanding patterns of nature, learning food production, managing water catchment and storage, utilizing renewable energy, and building communities. A permaculture system is the exemplary sustainable approach to food production systems that the Campus Garden aims to bring to the University at Buffalo. The belief is that through the building of this garden, we have created a community at UB that has a heightened understanding of where its food comes from (fair share), how that food affects individuals’ bodies (people care), and how food production affects the environment (earth care). With the framework of “Grow better, not bigger” in mind, the ultimate goal of this research is to double the amount of food production to forty-pounds, in the same 20’x20’ plot of the UB Campus Garden. To advance the Garden’s vision and further emphasize the importance of sustainability, it is our goal to explore different gardening techniques for implementation during the growing season. The four components to this alternative growing research include: 1) Community engagement and education; 2) Permaculture and companion planning; 3) Container gardening; and, 4) Vertical gardening. This research allows us to utilize the Garden’s space as best possible and be a representation to the campus community of how food production can occur despite space constraints. Wholly, we aim to educate individuals on alternative gardening techniques, prove that implementation of these techniques is plausible at other sites, and expand the campus community’s understanding of the importance of food production processes.
