Pictured above: Garden Club members work tirelessly to get the gardens ready for planting.
Courtesy of Aubrey Car | The Crow’s Nest
By Aubrey Carr
Gated away on the backlot of Residence Hall One (RHO) lies the Bayboro Food Forest, a sustainable garden and the meeting place of USF St. Petersburg’s very own gardening club.
The Garden Club focuses on teaching students how to care for gardens while learning how to grow food sustainably. The club’s Friday meetings consist of members getting their hands dirty while working to maintain the Food Forest’s many gardens.
Club President Lilly Verrill, a senior plant biology major, said meeting activities include “anything from weeding, to learning about how to care for plants, to ensuring our campus is biodiverse and is a safe place for the native animals of Florida.”
Members do not need to be biology majors, nor do they need to have any previous experience with plant life. The club’s casual atmosphere invites anyone with an interest in gardening or sustainable living to grab a trowel and join in.
The club is returning for its first active semester since being disbanded in early 2020 due to COVID-19 concerns.
After over a year of neglect, the previously well-kept Food Forest fell into ruin with little to no salvageable growth. “When I saw the garden in disrepair, I knew I had to do something and started asking around,” Verrill said about the club’s reinstatement.
Since its first fall meeting on Sept. 12, club members have worked tirelessly weeding and picking, making sure that the grounds will be in order for planting and harvesting later in the semester.
Though the Garden Club has only recently reassembled, the group has grown to 40 active members registered through BullsConnect, proving a significant student interest in the nature-oriented club.
Verrill said her favorite experience as club president has been seeing the involvement from her fellow students.
“It is so pleasant to see people actually show interest in something I am also passionate about,” Verrill said.
The Garden Club meets weekly on Fridays from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., though meetings can run longer depending on the amount of work needed in the gardens. Meetings take place in the Bayboro Food Forest located behind RHO.
The club is free to join and members are not required to attend meetings.
Registration for the Garden club can be found on BullsConnect. For more information, contact club Verrill by email at lverrill@usf.edu.
