By Shay Lelonek / News Director

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The SCSU Community Garden has kicked off its 22nd season, with volunteers gathering every Saturday for the last five weekends. 

On Saturday, May 30, approximately 20 people showed up at the garden at 10 a.m., ready to help out in any way they could. 

Tracy Ore, the community garden director and a Sociology professor at SCSU, directed volunteers during the day as they prepared the North garden bed for planting by weeding, laying down fabric, and setting out the irrigation system. After preparing the garden, volunteers gathered and planted tomatoes.

Marilyn Nelson, who has been volunteering at the garden for the past ten years, told KVSC she “just got drawn to the beauty of [the garden]” when she and her husband used to work at SCSU. 

After seven years of volunteering, Nelson brought her friend Jill Moorthy along, and the two of them showed up on Saturday to volunteer. 

“People are just amazed by [the garden] … It’s kind of overwhelming in a really good way,” Moorthy said when saying that she frequently takes people with her to the garden.

Saturday, June 6, will be the garden’s main planting day to get everything else in the ground. Ore told KVSC they grow a lot of different types of plants in the garden, including peppers, cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and more. 

“We try to grow a diversity of crops … so students who are coming from other places, and communities, and cultures, they’re always surprised when they see something that’s familiar, but that’s what we do it for,” Ore told KVSC. 

One of those varieties of plants includes a new variety of tomato called the Husky Tomato that was created in a collaboration effort with the community garden and SCSU’s biology program. 

The Husky Tomato is a non-GMO variety of tomato that was developed over four generations. This summer will be the first summer it’s grown in a garden with other plants outside of a controlled environment, and it marks the garden’s first time running a research trial. 

The history of the Garden

Ore started the garden in 2005, after taking students to Detroit, Michigan, for several years for a project called Detroit Summer. While in Detroit, Ore saw community gardens and how they worked, and got the idea to start one at St. Cloud State. 

Ore said she had never gardened prior to starting the garden, and had very little knowledge of how to grow plants, but that didn’t stop her from creating the garden that’s there today. 

“A lot of people thought this was a crazy idea, and it would never work. And I can say, 22 years later, it has worked,” Ore said. 

She pitched the idea to the university, and she was given a startup fund of approximately $5,000 from SCSU, but that’s the only funds the university has given to the garden over the years. Other than that, the garden is completely self-funded through pickle and jam sales, as well as the occasional grants they apply for and receive. 

The plot they were given didn’t have good soil when they started, Ore said. Over the years, though, with consistent tilling, feeding the land with compost, and soil testing, they’ve been able to revive the soil. Ore said they haven’t had to use compost for the past 5-6 years because the soil is so healthy now. 

Going Forward

After 22 years with the garden, Ore still has plans to improve. With one of the grants the garden received, the SCSU Foundation Husky Impact Funds, Ore said they’ll be able to bring on four paid student ambassadors. The initiative connects five campus units, including the garden, SCSU’s Honors College, Huskies Food Pantry, the University Library, and Biology Greenhouses and the Herbarium. 

With the funds, Ore said she plans to start free cooking demos at the food pantry via Zoom for students to learn how to cook on a budget. 

For a long-term goal, Ore said she wants to eventually obtain the house located in the middle of the garden between 5th and 6th street south. Ore said she would repurpose the house to become a food education and preservation center, and have an apartment for students who help with the garden. She would also like to add an attached cafe to the house that the culinary arts program at St. Cloud Technical and Community College could utilize for an educational or internship space.