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Boston University’s Rooftop Mini Garden

In this year’s inaugural garden, they grew 10 varieties of tomatoes and 5 different kinds of peppers, as well an assortment of lettuces and other greens, root vegetables, and brassicas.

By Bill Politis
Boston University Today
Oct 28, 2021

Excerpt:

The project is the brainchild of Sidney Hare (CAS’22). “I knew that when I went to college I wanted to establish a garden on campus,” Hare says. “ I think that urban gardening is an essential step forward in helping to reduce food deserts, helping mitigate urban heat island effects, and working to greenify cities in a productive manner. Gardening is my passion and I did not want to let living in a city impede me from doing that.”

Hare, who grew up in Utah, inherited her passion for gardening from her aunt. At 16, she was accepted into a farmer training program run by a local non-profit, where she learned how to farm and how run an agricultural business. She was responsible for farming 1/10 of an acre and over the course of two years, raised 1,000 pounds of produce which she donated to Salt Lake City food banks.

When it came time to look for colleges, Hare knew she wanted to find way to stay involved in gardening. The Earth and Environmental Sciences major with a concentration in ecosystems, began working with BU Sustainability freshman year to start planning a rooftop garden. Her project moved ahead after she received funding last spring from the BU Urban Climate Initiative’s Campus Climate Lab, which funds research projects that use the BU campus as a living laboratory to advance sustainability practices and support the University’s Climate Action Plan.

Read the complete article here.