Students Dig In for a Greener Campus

A Labor Day workday, organized by the SGA and student clubs, highlights Washington's commitment to community service and sustainability.

For Labor Day students and some faculty gathered for a workday in the Campus Garden, a sanctuary rooted in permaculture design principles located behind the Western Shore Residence Halls and the Larabee Arts Center. The event drew around 15 students and was a collaborative effort between the Student Government Association (SGA), the Campus Garden Club, and the Composting Club. 

Students completed a variety of tasks, including mulching, weeding, and cleaning up some previously unusable spots in the garden. They also planted native pollinator plants, with the goal of attracting butterflies and other insects, a key initiative of the Campus Garden Club this semester. 

“Our main idea now is to make the seating area in the garden surrounded by native plants that attract butterflies so when people are here they can enjoy the beautiful flowers and insects,” said Dru Schimke-Goetz ’28, an environmental science and international studies major and president of the Campus Garden Club. Schimke-Goetz became involved with the garden after taking a beekeeping class last year and developing an interest in utilizing beeswax and honey. That interest led to a permaculture internship in the garden to build those skills.  

Joseph Atkins ’28, SGA secretary of service and community relations, was pleased to be spearheading the coordination to for the day’s events.  

“The SGA wanted to host an event to bring people together, show some love to our campus, and give back,” said Atkins, a political science and philosophy double major. Atkins was part of a team who spent the better part of an hour digging and unearthing bits of an old fence and a large tarp that had become buried and overgrown behind a shed at the far end of the space.  

“I hope that we can get more people into the garden,” he said. “This is a great way to showcase the work so many have already done here.” 

Members of the Composting Club were also present and putting in maximum effort ahead of the lunch break. The club, which maintains the campus' composting system, is hoping to expand their work with the dining hall to bring post-consumption composting to campus soon. Currently, the Club offers composting bins to students to use in their dorms and takes all the dining hall’s post-production waste for composting as well. President of the Composting Club Zoe Brookbank ’26 spent the day pulling weeds, refilling the wood chip bins, and cleaning out the drop off bins, as well as overseeing maintenance on the composting bin air systems. Students no longer have to turn the piles of waste manually to aerate them. Thanks to a grant they recently earned, the students built a fan system that pumps oxygen into the piles on a timer. Students and the campus community are encouraged to bring compostable waste to the drop off site at the entrance of the garden.  

Brookbank shared her excitement for future collaborations between the Garden Club and Composting Club.  

“We have a lot of people interested in working in the garden and getting their hands dirty,” she said.  

Nicole “Nikki” Hurless, a visiting assistant professor of psychology, joined the students in their day of service. With an interest in hosting classes in the space, Hurless was hard at work clearing out the fence and tarp as well.  

“This fall I’m happy to be working to make the garden more accessible and usable for [my] class to meet and work on in the spring,” said Hurless, who plans to teach a special topics course on eco-therapy next semester. She is also exploring the idea of a chakra garden to connect spirituality with the natural world and is hoping to gain support from the Washington College Center for Environment and Society (CES) via working with an herbalist intern.

Hurless also assisted the regional Master Gardeners group over the summer as they lent a helping hand to the Campus Garden to build out an apiary garden to attract bees and butterflies with native pollinator-attracting plants. They  also installed a zinnia patch near the back entrance to the space. She is hoping to complete the program and become a Master Gardener herself soon, while working with Katherine “Kathy” Thornton, a field technician with the Washington College Natural Lands Project, who recently took over managing the garden, to expand programming in the garden.  

Thornton is hoping the garden will continue to expand as a space students can experiment and learn about plants in different capacities as well as utilize the natural settings as a relaxing community space.  

“The initial intent for the garden was always to be an outdoor classroom for courses and clubs and we’re seeing that come to fruition more and more,” said Thornton. “It's very exciting to see the buy-in from students and faculty alike.” 

The Labor Day event, which was followed by a barbecue, underscored Washington's vibrant atmosphere of hands-on learning, environmental stewardship, and community engagement. Those toiling in the soil noted how good it felt to be working with their hands to create a beautiful space for all to use.  

“Just being out here doing anything in nature is therapeutic,” said Hurless.  

 

— Dominique Ellis Falcon