Blogs

Many people want to get into garden but don’t know where to start, and others start their own garden but may not achieve the results they are looking for. The CEU rooftop garden is a unique way for busy students and staff at the CEU to reconnect with nature and learn about healthy, effective ways of producing vegetables in their own backyards.

By the end of a sunny and warm afternoon, the organic gardening session began.  The tiny seeds that were planted several months ago had become huge delicious plants (most of them).  The time had come to harvest them! Nevertheless, we first began to talk about weeding, vegetable are not the only ones to grow.  Fortunately for us, the garden being in a city and on a rooftop, the weeds were not a huge problem.  Therefore, we did not spend much time on them.  We just explained how to counter them.

If you have been thinking about making compost but wondering it may be too difficult, smelly or undoable in your garden, you should visit CEU Edible Rooftop Garden, located on the rooftop of Nador 15 building. Over there, The Sustainable CEU Action Team have placed two boxes to produce home-made compost. They aim to create a closed cycle garden which would limit the need to bring in compost or other nutrients from outside. 

Learning by doing is my all-time favorite way to acquire new skills and learn new things. While the weather was still gray and unwelcoming, we have spent the early afternoons of Fridays inside, planning what to do and learning how to do it – the only thing missing was a fireplace to sit around while sharpening the hoes and fixing broken shovel handles. We were gardening in mind, we’ve tried to understand how soil and plants work together, how everything natural has its role and nothing goes to waste.

After the long weeks of harsh winter weather, finally we could get outside of the classroom and start realizing our garden plan.

First, we started the seeding of tomatoes, peppers, peas, beans, and salad greens in little pots. Some of the seeds were of local, traditional species. Besides these, we used high value organic seeds, therefore we dealt with them carefully, placing one seed in one little hole. We watered them and placed the pots inside, in a room with abundant sunlight.  

Seeking to add some practical skills to a highly theoretical education, we decided to enroll in the Organic Gardening class offered by the department of Environmental Sciences here at the CEU. The organic gardening course was mainly divided in two parts; the first one consisted of theoretical knowledge and the second of concrete practice in the garden on the rooftop.

What is going on in the Japanese Garden?

- By Diana Zadorozhna and Isabela Machado

Organic farm work day in Zsambok

- by Susana Guerreiro

Promoting a Common Green Space

- by Ruth Pinto

This article was in the NYT and notes the attraction of the Occupy Movement to researchers.  It raises the question of objectivity and activism.  Can you be an academic and an activist/advocate?  What do you think?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/01/books/academia-becomes-occupied-with-o...