This summer, staff members who don't have access to a garden at home will have a chance to book a small lot of the Sustainability Garden raised beds to start planning for the growing season. This arrangement allows participants who live in condos or townhouses to express their green thumb passion, and even try some edibles from their home country! Contactgreenu@miami.eduto book your lot (and keep in mind that its first come, first served!)
VOLUNTEERING HOUR
The Sustainability Garden in the Arboretum have a weekly maintenance hour on Wednesday, 4-5 pm: Contact greenu@miami.edu to book your spot. All UM community members can help. Weeding, mulching, inspecting, rearranging, adding soil, ... we have a lot to do to make sure our garden is thriving! Thanks in advance for your help. Garden To Do List
For Staff and Faculty: Get 100 points on your Well Canes card for 1 hour of volunteering (2 hours - 200 points max). Reserve your spot now, first come first served (limited number of volunteers due to Covid restrictions), contact greenu@miami.edu; For more Community Gardens in South East Florida, visit local community garden; Educate yourself with the best in our region, UF-IFAS Miami Dade County Extension - Urban Horticulutre Program: https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/
Food Forest Tour
Faculty and students can now plan a tour of UM's Food Forest in the Gifford Arboretum. Faculty and staff receive 100 points on their Well 'Canes card for one hour of volunteering in the garden. Contact greenu@miami.edu for more information
The CommUnity Garden Club
Join the CommUnity Garden Club, located in front the School of Architecture's main entrance. To learn how you can get involved and help growing more local delicious produces, visit CommUnity Garden on Facebook. We will have gardening hours for volunteer. Location of the garden will change during Spring 2022. Contact Tran, Caroline Ly clt908@miami.edu for more information.
Composting is limited to UV Residents with an "ECO Sponsored" bucket (Application Form for UV residents). Bucket holders can empty their veggie scrap bucket in one of our tumblers (map of the garden). Please, follow the INSTRUCTIONS on your bucket.
If you are on site and need help, PLEASE CALL 786-394-0911 Compost manager training video. For any questions, please contact: greenu@miami.edu
Other compost programs at UM: Coffee Grounds 4 Plants helps the Sustainable Food Garden in the Gifford Arboretum
Smoothie King Compost: Green U partnered with UM Dining and Smoothie King to launch a banana composting program. Just like coffee grounds from Starbucks, the buckets are collected by a team of Green Patrols trained by Tim. Riding the ECO tricycle, they help regenerate the soil of the beautiful Sustainability Garden!
You are not a UV resident? No problem, check this Compost Map of Miami Dadewith all the sites available near you (More information about composting in Miami Dade here.) For sustainable food and plant-based diet on campus, visit miami.edu/plantbased
How would you like to step out of your office or health care facility into the sunshine to find a food forest and herb garden awaiting you? Together with Dr. Christina Pozo-Kaderman, medical students, and dieticians, the Facilities and Operations Department and the Office of Sustainability have helped create an oasis of healing and support for the Cancer Support Services' mission. Read the full article. Want to get involved? Contact greenu@miami.edufor opportunities.
If you are studying or working on the RSMAS campus, and you would like to be involved in the making of the new Green Committee Garden, visit the RSMAS Sustainability Initiative site.
The Gifford Arboretum Sustainability Garden is located on the University of Miami Coral Gables campus. Up until summer of 2018, it was a "temporary" dumping ground for tree trimmings etc. from around campus. For almost five years before this, U Miami faculty and students had been campaigning for a dedicated gardening spaces for organizations and classes. During the summer of 2018 the site was cleared and leveled. Garden creation began in August 2018 and has been growing and beautifying since then.
We have delineated two zones to date, the rock-edged perennial/food forest beds ("Sustainable Suburbia") and the annuals-focused geometric trial beds. Groups and classes using these are outlined below. Our focuses and goals are multifold:
To promote & teach sustainable gardening practices to the next generation.
To specifically focus on edible gardening, gardening for wildlife, and environmentally-friendly gardening practices (e.g. reduced use of pesticides/herbicides, smart water use, etc).
To provide garden plots where UM organizations and classes can work on a semester-by-semester basis (Trial Beds) and for longer duration time periods (Perennial Beds).
Once sufficiently established, to provide community outreach.
2020
Development of the Arboretum Sustainability garden continues on multiple fronts. In the geometric trial beds, two new projects this school year are the Square Foot Bed and the Slow Food Ark of Taste Bed. Square foot gardening demonstrates how to grow high diversity and continuing harvest edibles in limited space; the Ark of Taste plantings focus on culturally significant historical food varieties at risk of being lost. For the Alternate Turf project, after completion of the proof-of-concept section and plant selection trials, deployment across the entire walking surface has commenced. The native plants used need less water, trimming and fertilizer than grass; additionally they provide multiple wildlife benefits. In the Sustainable Suburbia perennial section, new plantings include an asparagus bed and a red/purple/yellow flowers nectar bed of pagoda flower/ruellia/native goldenrod. Lastly, in the wall vine planters a grape arbor was built using Arboretum bamboo; two varieties of muscadine grapes are climbing the arbor and already fruiting.
ECS 112 Field Problems in Ecosystem Science & Policy
ECS 301 Tools for Environmental Decision-Making: The Quantitative Perspective
GSC 410 Environmental Geochemistry
Students and faculty came together at UM's annual Food Day to highlight the need for sustainable, locally-sourced food. With the world's population rising and climate change putting pressure on worldwide food security, we must take immediate action! But how can we eat fresh and sustainably in the 305? Does growing your own food seem too good to be true? UM's Food Garden in the arboretum is available to everyone and is a fantastic way to get involved on campus. Take the first step toward a plant-based diet, not only for your health, but for the health of the planet. Please contact greenu@miami.edu for more information!
We (faculty and students) are particularly excited about our mission to recycle/upcycle materials normally deemed "difficult." We have a major focus on recycling materials that would normally be tossed, in our case to build naturally fertile soils that not only reduce external inputs (e.g., 'mined' soils & artificial fertilizers), but also support a diverse and healthy soil community Some of our soil-building materials are:
Ramial wood gathered from the adjacent arboretum (used instead of store-bought mulch)
Newspapers from the UM library (as moisture-retaining base directly above limestone)
Coffee grounds from on-campus Starbucks
Banana peels from selected Wednesday on-campus Farmer's market stalls (good source of K)
Rabbit manure & bedding from a local house-rabbit rescue/adoption/education center (H.A.R.E.)
Seaweed from local beaches (provides a multitude of micronutrients)
The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us the importance of preserving biodiversity. You can start by creating pollinator havens for butterflies in your own backyard. Professor Terri Hood and Environmental Services Director Frances Kaniewski are both passionate about preserving biodiversity through butterflies, and will provide you with tips on how to build your own garden! Join Build Your Own Butterfly Garden on Friday, July 10 from 8:30-9:30 a.m.
The biomedical graduate and medical students at the Miller Herb and Food Garden celebrated Food Day on October 19, with festivities promoting sustainable food systems and the therapeutic power of food. Tours of the Miller Garden "Food Forest" were given to Miller SOM students and Hialeah highschool students who joined for the occasion.
Everybody helped planting turmeric, harvesting longevity spinach, lemon grass and cuban oregano! Some cared for the plants by adding compost to the soil. Some even learned crafts on stones to take home or adorn the garden. The event took place at the garden, located in front of the Calder Library.
How would you like to step out of your office or health care facility into the sunshine to find a food forest and herb garden awaiting you? Together with Dr. Christina Pozo-Kaderman, medical students, and dieticians, the Facilities and Operations Department and the Office of Sustainability have helped create an oasis of healing and support for the Cancer Support Services' mission. Read the 
