Hort 120 Garden Service Learning Experience

For my service learning hours I worked in the Eagle Heights Hort 120 Garden with Ed to help in the gardens. My work included maintaining beds, harvesting plants, and putting the garden to rest for the long winter ahead. While in the garden I learned a great deal about the various plants that grew there, along with other similar species that were not in the garden. I was also able to learn more about the how to grow plants and put the information I was learning in class into use. I was also able to explore various different types of plants that I had never eaten before.

During my hours in the garden, my time was spent on a myriad of tasks. In the beginning I worked mostly with reorganizing the garden in preparation for next year. I began with pulling up rose bushes, unfortunately I was not properly dressed and the thorns proved to be a slight problem, but I managed through with only a scrape or two! Next I began transplanting tulips towards the edge of the garden, both for the aesthetics, but also so that they could act as a boarder. I was taught about leaving enough roots to keep the plant happy, along with using the techniques from propagating plants in class, such as cutting leaves so that

It was interesting to try a variety of vegetables that I had never tasted before, like bok choy, tomatillos, lovage, and jicama. I enjoyed Ed’s “try this” method, asking what a plant tasted like and then discovering it was in the same family as a plant I was accustomed to eating. This helped remind me of the different families we had learned in class. An example of this was trying lovage, and thinking it tasted like celery, later learning they are both part of the family Apiaceae. I also was grateful to take home produce to cook with; I enjoyed making fresh salads and sandwiches along with cooking up stir-fries and various other dishes with vegetables I knew I liked along with a few new