Bryn Mawr College’s Community Garden was started in 2010, founded by the Green Gardens Committee. Located on a thin strip of land between New Dorm Dining Hall and the Wyndham Alumnae House parking lot, the Community Garden is a space for students, faculty and staff to garden and grow various fruits and vegetables. Anyone is encouraged to come and help out, whether that be with planting, maintaining, or harvesting. To be added to the Community Garden email list, email Hannah Cosgrove (hcosgrove@brynmawr.edu).
The produce grown at the Community Garden is used in the New Dorm Dining Hall, Wyndham Alumnae House restaurant and Batten House. Additionally, everything that is grown there is free for the community to harvest.
In the past year, the garden grew okra, peppers, strawberries, squash, sunflowers, beans, raspberries, herbs, tomatoes, apples, corn and more. Hannah Cosgrove, the student leader for the Community Garden, says that the garden is “our way of trying to make fresh food more accessible on campus.”
Hannah, when asked about the inspiration for helping run and maintain the garden, said, “While I had never grown vegetables before taking the position, it seemed like a great opportunity to learn more about gardening while also reviving student participation in the program. Although students have not been very involved since the onset of COVID, staff have been working at the Community Garden and growing plants for years. It was incredible to be able to work with them to increase the amount of area we are farming and to get students back and involved in that process.”
Over the course of this past growing season, the Bryn Mawr Community Garden finally got back to being up and running, having their most successful season yet. Some of their improvements include an optimization of the limited area, figuring out the timing and maintenance of different plants, and refurbishments of the different beds, painted in joyful blues and greens.
Now, the main challenge is getting people to help out. “We would love to be a place for people interested in gardening, the outdoors and service to spend time together and hope that going into the colder months we can hold events to do just that,” says Hannah.
Now that winter is approaching, the garden is no longer growing produce, and is being cleaned up and winterized. In the meantime, the Community Garden will be hosting occasional community-building events until the spring, when things will get back up and running for another year of various fruits and vegetables.
According to Hannah, “The best thing about the garden is how it can be a different thing for so many people. We are a way to get involved with gardening and spend time outside, a place to hang out and destress after class, a stop to grab some berries or herbs, and a way to give back to the community. I am so happy that it can fill so many different roles, even if it is just the place you walk through to smile at the giant sunflowers.”
To receive information about the Community Garden’s winter events and spring planting, email Hannah Cosgrove (hcosgrove@brynmawr.edu) to be added to the email list. No experience is needed and it is open to any level of interest. “Come by for whatever time you can—we would love to have you!”
