With the arrival of spring, the Auburn University Community Garden re-blooms with the help of students and community members.
Auburn University Community Garden has been a part of Auburn since the 1970s when it was founded by an agricultural fraternity. The facility was at first only available to faculty and staff but was eventually opened up to anyone who wished to buy a plot.
The garden is currently managed by Jeremiah DeVore and two other garden crew members. DeVore’s main job is to oversee the property and make sure everything is running smoothly.
“I oversee plot assignments, collecting the rent payments,” DeVore said. “Right around now is when I’m busy with all of that.”
DeVore said the garden requires a decent amount of maintenance from the staff. Some of the tasks include keeping the shed clean, maintaining the pathways and making sure the spigots work so gardeners have access to water.
DeVore mentioned that this year the staff will put together a display garden to show people who are looking to garden what a plot should look like. All the crops grown in the display garden will be donated to the University.
“People will rent plots, so they pay the fee to get it for the full year,” DeVore said. “They can manage their plots however they want, grow whatever they want, but ultimately, it’s theirs to do whatever they please.”
Currently, the garden has five undergraduate renters and nine graduate students out of 61 total renters. Out of the 61, there are also around 20 faculty and staff members. The rest is made up of community members from the Auburn-Opelika area.
Adler Salem,
“I was like, I want to garden [but] I live in an apartment, so I just looked (the community garden) up online,” Salem said.
Salem, like many others in the garden, is currently growing a wide variety of crops including strawberries, broccoli, cabbage and beats.
When asked if the garden was going to continue to expand, DeVore said the amount of land would not expand, so whatever plots get rented are what define the garden each year.
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