Our Green Thumb Garden

Our Green Thumb: MIIS’s Student Run Garden

Our Green Thumb inaugurated the student-led community organic garden on Van Buren Street adjacent to the Morse Building in spring 2009. During the Spring of 2019, Our Green Thumb Garden instituted several sustainability projects. The Garden Manager purchased 2,300 worms and restarted the vermiculture plot to create compost, using dried garden vegetation and coffee grounds from the Institute’s food service vendor, Aqua-Terra. In an effort to naturally deal with the harmful insects that are common in our garden, 1,500 ladybugs and approximately 150 praying mantises were released onto the grounds and seem to be effectively reducing aphid populations. During Earth Month, we started a culinary mushroom garden using a previously unusable plot. We are striving to be an educational sustainable garden, so signage in the garden has been updated to inform students and visitors of ongoing projects and the benefits of our efforts. Two insect houses have also been added to the garden, hoping to get local bees to establish their habitat there. The garden is just a cool place to kick back and relax.

For more information about the garden or reserving a plot of your own, please reach out to Arthur Eschbach and Carly Tozian at: ourgreenthumbgarden@gmail.com