Introduction: Welcome to the Sustainable Carolina Garden!

This is where we grow our produce

to sell at the healthy carolina farmer’s market, and any leftover produce gets donated to the
carolina food pantry. The garden first started out around 2007 with a few student garden boxes
and has grown since then into a student-run urban garden and agribusiness. In the garden, we
promote the importance of community based food security and maintaining ecological diversity
in a suburban city. We have also been working towards the idea of “healing through the land”
since one of our past garden managers introduced that idea.

U-Pick: So down here is our u-pick me walk way. We call it that because this area exist primarily
for people who walk by this area. As they walk to class, they can pick some fruit and try it. Up
here is a che-berry tree and it is also sometimes called a chinese mellonberry. It is related to
mulberries which are very similar to blackberries Che berries have a subtle sweet taste that’s
kinda similar to a melon or fig, but I think it tastes kinda like a pear with something else. The
name came from “Che” translating to stony ground, which highlights this variety’s drought
tolerance and ability to thrive in poor soil. These are actually ripe right now, so you can harvest
one and try it. I recommend not eating an unripe one because they are slightly poisonous when
young so you can get a stomach ache. Next to this tree is a hazelnut tree and then a persimmon
tree. Uhhh there use to be persimmons on this tree but many people harvest them when they
are not yet ripe, which idk why, you can’t really eat them when they are unripe because it’s
super chalky and dries up you entire mouth. Next to that is our fig tree and we have a couple of
blackberry canes down there. There are also a few blueberry bushes mixed in with this walkway
area.

Outdoor Garden: So out in the blank lawn area is our outdoor classroom. Over there is a shed
with tables and chairs so classes can set up out here if they want to. We usually hold some
events for the garden out here. Over here is a keyhole garden, and the reason why it’s called
that is because you can fit into this hole like a key. We like to keep these beds because it is
more accessible for people with disabilities or bad knees. For some keyhole beds, you might
see a hole in the center so people can add compost in the middle and then mix Right now it is
kind of falling over, so we will be taking this down and rebuilding it. Currently we are growing
some lemon drop peppers, jalapenos, chili peppers, oregano, lemon balm, bee balm, and basil
that needs to be pulled out. Over here are some of our personal beds. We were growing
zucchini in the back, but every since the hurricane hit, it hasn’t been doing so well. We are
planning on turning this into a dye bed and growing beets and flowers high in pigments to turn
into dye or a seed saving bed so we can let lettuce or carrots go to seed and collect those
seeds. Over here are some student beds. If you are interested in gardening but don’t want to
volunteer for a shift rather take care of your own small plot, then you can email one of the
project coordinators and we can get you set up for that. I think we currently have one plot
available, but I am not too sure since I am not in charge of that.

If we walk over in this area, you will see our wetland area. So something that is important in the
garden is permaculture, which is the idea of creating a self-sufficient and sustainable agricultural
system that promotes ecological diversity and minimizes waste. In this wetland area, you will
see that everything slopes down to this point, so all of the water runs down to here and gets
absorbed by the plants in this area to help remove pollutants that have flown downhill and act as
flood control. Wetlands are also important for something called carbon sequestration where
carbon is actually captured and stored into the wetland habitat. Many species exist in this
area… or they use to, not sure if they are still here because over the summer someone didn’t
like our wetland since it looked like weeds were growing in it so he mowed it down, but we don’t
talk about that. After the water reaches this point, it flows to the back area, which has even more
wetland plants. There are a couple plants in the wetland that are edible, for example these
spikey vines over here are dewberry vines, which are related to blackberries. They are a bit
more tart, but still taste very good. Over here, you will see some small thin leaves with white
flowers on top. This is called swamp , water , or false water pepper, and it’s often used in
Appalachian recipes as an alternative to spices. As the name suggests, the leaves have a bit of
a peppery flavor and taste really good in soups.

So if you continue down here, you will see our orchard. In this area, we have a couple of pear
trees, peach trees, one hazelnut tree, an apple tree, and a mulberry tree that no longer fruits but
we keep due to the shade it provides. In this area, you will see some small branches and larger
branches. These are either elderberries which we keep due to the medicinal properties it has or
poke berries, which we keep due to cultural significance. So poke berry is also sometimes
called poke weed and it produces these small pink flowers that turn into a deep purple. As the
pokeweed matures, the toxicity also increases, especially in the root systems, and the toxins
can be cooked out if prepared correctly. In the past, these berries were used in this region by
slaves so they can eat something else without becoming unwell. And so, we like to keep these
here in order to acknowledge slavery and history. If we walk over to this area, you will see our
spiral herb garden, also I should have asked this earlier but is anyone here deathly allergic to
ants? Okay, so even if you are not, you should still watch your step because we have a lot of fire
ants around here. So this is our spiral herb garden, we haven’t used this in many years, so we
are trying to have it up and running again. This herb garden here is the definition of
permaculture. Because of the way this structure is built, the sun will shine on parts of it more
often in certain parts and the bottom will stay wetter than the top. As such, you can grow full sun
loving herbs, partial sun herbs, shade loving hers, wetland herbs, and more arid herbs in this
garden structure pretty easily. Because of the variety of herbs you can grow, you create a sort of
microclimate in this structure. So these beds over here are some more of our student plots, all of
which are used except for maybe that one I believe. Over here are our beds and where most of
our produce come from. So right now we have a lot of cosmos, basil, radish, beans, zinnias, and
asparagus growing around here. The most important plant we have right now, in my opinion, is
the passion vine. So this passion vine is sometimes refer to as purple passion vine or the
maypop variety. It is an important host plant for gulf fritillary butterflies, which means that those
caterpillars live on this plant and eat this plants. Right now, you can oh yea here’s one! These
are gulf fritillary caterpillars and they do look a little freaky. Because of their diet, they are
poisonous to birds and other predators, but their spines are actually really soft and feel nice
when you pet it.

Over here is our monarch waystation. A waystation is an area that provides resources for
butterflies so that they are able to produce successive generations and sustain their migrations
down to mexico. Monarchs are studied extensively because their migrations across the
continent provides invaluable service and essentials for many ecosystems to thrive. Right now,
they are endangered because urbanization has caused a lot of land to be cleared off. The host
plant for monarchs are milkweed, which use to grow around everywhere extensively. Due to the
need of farmland and cities, milkweed has been cleared out a lot, which has been harming the
monarch populations. A sizable monarch waystation will be about 100 square feet and contain
at least 2 species of milkweed along with other flowers that are preferred by monarchs and
other pollinators. Right now, we have milkweed growing up, and cosmos and golden rod
growing. A certified monarch waystation must have a minimum of 10 milkweed plants, which we
do. So over here are some swamp sunflowers and this trellis is something we have been trying
to use, but people keep on pulling out every flower we start around it because they think it’s a
weed, but that’s okay. We do have a humming bird feeder on it.

This area is our hardening off station, which is where we put our seedlings to they can acclimize
to the natural environmate and get use to it. This will help prevent any shock when it gets
transplanted. So down here are a couple more fruit trees, this over here is also a persimmon
tree. The one in the u pick me is of the fuyu variety, and this one is the hachiya variety. These
look like they are ripe since they are orange, but they are actually not ripe right now. If you eat it
right now you will get a mouth full of chalk. These are ripe when they get very very soft and
squishy. Over here is another one of our fig trees. We like to make a lot of propagations from
this tree and we are super excited for next semester to come so we can cut back all of these
trees to encourage new growth. This one is a peach tree that is kind of diseased so we don’t
talk about it and this is a white pomegranate tree.

Over here is a new bed we built, which has cantaloupe and zucchini growing in it as well as
some sort of ornamental squash. The canteloupes are doing awful right now, but in this area is a
vernal pond or seasonal pool. So you might look at this and go, hey that pond is empty. Well,
that’s kind of the point. A vernal pond has no permanent inlet or outlet and creates a unique
wetland habitat during the rainy seasons of summer. This then creates a temporary wetland
habitat essential for some species for survival

This over here is our compost area, which you guys probably already know about since you are
the zero waste team. Students add stuff in the container labeled active, and we stir the compost
at least once a week to add aeration and measure the temperature as well. In our compost, we
use a 4:1 ratio of browns and greens and this helps ensure that we get good nitrogen and
carbon content for our plants. We use a generic backyard passive compost system and you can
add anything in here that is backyard compostable and is on this sign. That means yes you can
put your biodegradable phone cases in here, just make sure you cut it into really small pieces.
We sometimes turn the compost as much as every two days, which might seem like a lot, but it
actually doesn’t matter too much and is fine. Many recent studies have shown that compost
goes anaerobic as soon as 30 minutes, and the aeration helps with the microbial activity. We
keep our compost turner in the student shed, and the thermometers are in the ground. You
know your curing compost is done