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EC Garden |
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The EC Garden is an organic community garden on the UC Davis campus where anyone may rent a 200 square foot garden plot for $30 per year . Garden accounts cycle annually from March 1st to the end of February and are not pro-rated; except from Sep. through Feb. when plots cost $20 each for gardening until March 1st, when everyone has to renew their plots for another year. For the best deal, start gardening in March or September, but you may join the EC Garden at any time.
The EC Garden is managed by the Experimental College (which is nonprofit via ASUCD) and has been at its present location since 1970, when the irrigation was started (finished ca. 1972). It is adjacent to the Student Farm on Orchard Park Drive, south of the Domes and Orchard Park Apartments. Please see us on the campus map. Come take a stroll through the garden sometime, but beware that parking is only free on weekends, as TAPS requires either A or C permits to park your car there. EC Gardeners may work-trade to make plots cheaper by doing volunteer work hours for plot credit. The trade is only $2 credit per hour, but the work days are fun, and the work hour tasks can be either collaborative or solo efforts, and most work hour tasks are amenable to any skill level. Typically, gardeners maintain paths adjacent to their plots for credit, which increases their harvest due to pest prevention, but lots of other options are available: such as tabling at the Davis Farmer’s Market, watering, pruning, construction, surveying, orchard maintenance, computer work, resource acquisition, and more. Land, water, tools, mulch, manure, and gardening advice are included with your plot rental. Gardeners may plant (and rent!) perennials, including fruit and nut trees, herbs, and shrubs which must be labeled with a permanent metal tag, so that the EC Garden inherits a known variety when the gardener departs. If you wish to retain picking rights to a rented perennial, you must fence off and sign your plot; so that others know not to pick from it. Fences are common at the EC Garden, but lots of plots are communally fenced. You can get a much larger harvest later by fencing your plot for a little extra cost and effort - which can often be shared with neighbors by fencing a whole neighborhood of plots. To start gardening please read the contract, fill out the application and email the EC Garden Coordinator with your interest. Then you can schedule to take the orientation tour and find your plot. Remember to bring your application and cash, check, or money order. The tour and plot search takes about an hour. To renew for another year at the EC Garden, please download the renewal form and send it to the Experimental College with check or money order. You may also hand deliver a cash payment to the EC, which is located on campus on the second floor of the South Silo – click here to see it. Around renewal time, you should receive an email with your work hours and plot credits listed by name. |
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