President’s garden still flourishing

Last year, students from Portland State designed a permaculture garden to be planted in President Wim Wiewel’s yard. This year, on May 1, a small group of students and faculty returned to his home to celebrate the garden’s success, one year later.

The group helped replace annual vegetable crops and herbs, as well as plant seeds, according to Jordan Mercier, a psychology student who was involved with the activities.

Mercier also volunteers at PSU’s Reuse Room, and is part of a Capstone project that is constructing the composting station in the Smith Food Court.

Amanda Leece, volunteer coordinator at the Sustainability Leadership Center, was also present that day.

“It was really fun to get our hands dirty and getting to plant things,” she said.

For many of those present to replant the garden, however, the real treat came after the manual labor was done.

Once the planting was completed, there was an hour or more in which the garden helpers sat down with Wiewel to discuss sustainability, said ASPSU Vice President Ed Hallman.

“We basically sat around and had a nice long conversation,” he said. “[We talked about] the direction of Portland State and what we see as the strengths of the college in terms of sustainability.”

The group also discussed the future of sustainability at PSU, as well as what improvements need to be made in order to provide the university with a promising future, according to Hallman. 

Mercier also appreciated having time to touch base with Wiewel.

“[Wiewel] talked a lot about sustainability at PSU and how that’s looking from the institutional level,” Mercer said. “The people I know are working it from the ground level so it’s really nice to have someone who is part of the actual bureaucratic aspect of it.”

A permaculture garden is a system intended to be sustainable with little to no input from gardeners, once in place, according to Hallman.

“It’s not just something that is limited to growing things,” he said. “It’s actually a way of thinking about all the inputs and outputs of a system and pointing them inward so they take care of themselves.”

Hallman said he gained a great deal of his permaculture insight from Permaculture Design, a two-term course offered by Toby Hemenway. Students in the course designed the permaculture garden that is now on display in Wiewel’s front yard.

“It’s a really great course. It is one of the best things I’ve done in college. And after you finish both terms, you actually get your permaculture design certificate,” Hallman said. “Also, the instructor is one of the coolest and wisest individuals I have met in my life.”

Fallon Roderick, Student Leadership liaison for Ecological Sustainability, encourages students to get involved in sustainability projects such as this one.

“I think the Sustainability Leadership Center is going be the place for students to come when they want to get involved in sustainability projects,” Roderick said.

There are several other gardening projects available on campus for students that want to venture into sustainable practices, according to Leece.

In addition, Leece said it was an exciting time to get involved in sustainability.

“There are lots of opportunities available,” she said. “If they want to help they can just contact us [at the Sustainability Leadership Center].”

According to Hallman, permaculture ideas are just beginning to take off.

“I think it’s a huge opportunity for a lot of people,” he said. “Permaculture is really going to explode– especially as we get more into urban agriculture.”