Landscape Architecture students plant herbs in the new kitchen garden they designed and created for IFNH Harvest.
The Dudley Road entrance of the Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health (IFNH) on the Rutgers Cook Campus has been a hive of activity this semester as sixteen Byrne Seminar students planted a kitchen herb garden for Chef Ian Keith of Harvest, the healthy eating venue at IFNH. This is part of an on-going process of Landscape Architecture students creating and interfacing with a campus living laboratory.
Under the instruction of teaching instructor Arianna Lindberg and associate professor Holly Nelson, sophomore Landscape Architecture students Emily Otterbine and Alexis Lo presented two designs for the garden to the class, and a hybrid design was selected to build.
The final touch: Landscape Architecture students show off the new tables and chairs.
Construction of the garden began with the foraging of pine needles from the pine forest at Rutgers Gardens for the brick-edged pathways. Landscape Architecture students participated in planting day on October 1st to transplant the green roof plants in the existing bed to other planting beds at IFNH. Then construction began in earnest as students trundled compost in wheelbarrows to amend the soil, build the pathways, and plant new perennial herbs which will be augmented in spring with annual herbs and edible flowers. The kitchen garden is located on the patio along the east wall of the Food Science and Nutritional Sciences building, facing the front of IFNH.
While the garden is ready to go to sleep for the winter, a few more touches have been added to enhance the IFNH outdoor space. Three multi-stem honey locusts now provide some shade for the south-facing terrace overlooking the wildflower meadow at IFNH, and for dining/studying al fresco, a few Rutgers-red outdoor tables and chairs are being trialed, thanks to support from Dean Rick Ludescher.
See the photo gallery for the latest phase of the IFNH living lab construction.
