Scripps Gardening Club does work outside Scripps’ walls, too, with plans to continue partnering with the Pomona and Pitzer farms. They also plan on making an edible plant map for community members to use around campus. “Learning about … what can grow here has felt very integral to me feeling home here.”īeyond working on the garden, the club plans on hosting workshops - such as ones on resin plant-pressing, natural dyes and medicinal plants - throughout the rest of the semester. Navratil, who hails from the East Coast, affirms this by saying that working in the garden has made her feel like she’s creating space and not just passively living in Claremont. “ makes me feel more connected to Scripps as a home rather than as like this kind of manicured campus that we just happen to live on,” Giebel said. Beia Giebel SC ’25 found out about the club from a zine that was passed out at Malott Dining Hall. To replenish its numbers after a year lying fallow, the club has focused on recruiting new members. “ makes me feel more connected to Scripps as a home rather than as like this kind of manicured campus that we just happen to live on.” -Beia Giebel SC ’25 “ a very peaceful and great way to meet other people also who share the same love.” “I just really love working with the earth,” member Kaitlyn Chin SC ’23 said. While not required to regularly attend meetings, members often do because of its therapeutic nature. The focus on community building makes the club feel more pleasure-oriented. “I think it’s nice that we can create a different tone that’s much more caring for each other and collaborative kind of a competitive or top down kind of dynamic,” Perry said. In contrast, at the Scripps Student Gardening Club, members can focus on learning from each other equally in a non-hypermasculine environment. In her time working on male-dominated farms, she felt more pressure to prove her worth and ability. She also noted how an agriculturally based club not led by men fosters a much less competitive environment. “I think just a big part of it is learning as we go and bringing together everyone’s knowledge … learning from each other and just figuring it out,” Perry said. And joining the club doesn’t require experience part of the fun comes from experimenting with the unknown. Friday meetings, they’re still able to use the space to their liking. So if it’s a challenge for interested students to make the 9 a.m. “Even if people aren’t going to come to club … we want you to know that this is a space that every student can use can harvest from you want to cook with fresh vegetables,” Navratil said. Club coordinator Sophie Navratil SC ’22 described how before the pandemic, the space was secretive and known only by word-of-mouth, which they are working to change. “We’re just growing some foods that we think that students would be excited to eat salads with and make their own food with.”Īlthough the club undertakes the responsibility for looking after the space, members prefer it to be known as somewhere all Scripps students can gather. “We’re waiting for all of our seeds to sprout up right now … it doesn’t look like there’s much going on, but I’m hoping soon everything will explode,” Perry said. Now, they are growing fall vegetables like swiss chard, snap peas and radishes. The club has been working on laying out compost in the beds and planting seeds, trying to revive their small ecosystem. Staff at Scripps trim various fruit trees in the garden, and landscape operations manager Joya Salas helps them secure compost and coordinate irrigation. “I think it’s kind of been a forgotten-about space … we’re trying to revitalize it and make it more of a central spot to be on campus.”Ĭaring for the garden is a team effort that extends beyond the club’s student membership. “We came to it at the beginning of the year … we’ve got to get this back to where it was,” Perry said. When members returned, only a handful of plants had survived, including a kale crop taller than one of the garden coordinators, Sophie Perry SC ’22. When COVID-19 hit, the grounds were abandoned again. The Scripps Student Garden was neglected for years until former Scripps Associated Students sustainability chair Sondra Abruzzo SC ’19 decided to revitalize it in the spring of 2019, creating the club to help care for it. Many students, even those living in Browning, might not know this refreshing space exists just beyond the rose garden. Last week, behind Scripps College’s Browning Hall, the Scripps Student Gardening Club feasted on the just-ripening fruit. (Anna Choi Īs cooler weather rolls into Claremont, it gives way to persimmon season. After the garden was left unattended due to the pandemic, the Scripps Student Gardening Club has had to replace almost all of its plants.
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