Hands-On Sustainable Development

Kroc School of Peace Studies students Sara Johnson and John Patterson spent this semester developing a sensory herb garden at Bayside Community Center's Community Garden. The project was part of Professor Topher McDougal’s graduate course on "Sustainable Development," and was designed to bring the subject of sustainability out of the classroom and into the community.

McDougal states, "The students and I started the class covering abstract concepts in environmental economics – by the end, though, we wanted to find a locally based project where we could get our hands dirty alongside community members."

Dr. McDougal and KSPS students worked with Bayside's Community Garden consultant, Janice Pezzoli, to develop a sustainable garden based on the principles of permaculture, a kind of ecological design framework that ensures the garden will require little or no watering. They planted herbs such as sage, lavender and rosemary, along with non-edible plants like St. Catherine’s lace, Lamb's Ear and Sunset Rock Rose, that are meant to outcompete weeds. The garden ends next to a sidewalk where members of the Linda Vista community queue for a monthly food commodities distribution, and the tactile experience is meant as a public, experiential gateway into the world of local food cultivation that the Community Garden represents.

Funding for the project was provided by USD's Kroc School of Peace Studies and Center for Community Service-Learning.