“Earthboxes” belonging to SP residents.

While the wonders of modern agriculture are separating us further and further from our food supply, some residents of Sidney Pacific are contributing their part to reverse this trend by growing their own herbs and vegetables! To serve these residents, Sidney Pacific launched a community garden in Fall 2012, spearheaded by George Chen from SPEC 2012, SP plants chair Peng Shi and Assistant Housemaster Roland Tang. The vision of this is a community of garden lovers at SP who share and support one another in the joy of planting their own food.

The community garden is currently located in the SP courtyard, in the form of a series of “earthboxes”: self-watering devices containing to 2 cubit feet boxes of soil which are lent out to residents to plant to their hearts desire. This allows residents to take advantage of outdoor sun while respecting MIT facilities regulations that disallow planting on the lawn. Residents take complete ownership of their cubic feet of soil and grows whatever herbs or vegetables they like.

Over the next year, the community garden plans to grow its membership, strengthen the sense of community, and to enjoy the fruits of its first full harvest cycle. We plan to build community by having meals together, sharing advice and tips about planting, and going to plant together. Peng, the plants chair, is planning to complement this with other plants/gardening/nature events to reach more residents with such interests and build a wider community of nature lovers at SP. If you would like to join our community, please contact SP plants chair Peng Shi at sp-plants-chair@mit.edu.

By Peng Shi, SP Plants Chair