The Earth Commons Institute, Georgetown University’s hub for environment and sustainability studies, hosted its second Planting Party of the Fall 2024 semester at the Hoya Harvest Garden, the on-campus community garden that harvests crops year-round and provides opportunities for sustainable agriculture education, Sept. 29.

Despite the clouds and light rain, students came to the gardens to remove last season’s crops and prepare the beds for the fall, serving as an opportunity for the broader Georgetown community to get involved in the Hoya Harvest Garden’s work. Students received a free yoga class and a bagel brunch before removing the dead plants, composting plant materials and planting new crops such as arugula and spinach in the garden beds.

Participants included some Planting Party regulars — such as the Hoya Harvest Garden student gardeners and management — and students who had never interacted with the garden before.

Jonathan Riess (CAS ’25) said this Planting Party was the first he had attended and that he found it to be a rewarding experience.

“Planting something in the Georgetown garden is a great way to connect to the campus and build community since you are actively working to create the space around you,” Riess wrote to The Hoya. “Now every time I walk past the garden, I’ll feel a little more connected to it and Georgetown’s campus, since I planted something in the garden and I can also see it grow over the coming weeks.” 

Charlotte Correiro (CAS ’24), a post-baccalaureate fellow with the Earth Commons, said she became the manager of the Hoya Harvest Garden early this September and works as a student garden steward at Georgetown. She said Planting Parties are one of the many ways for the Georgetown community to interact with the Hoya Harvest Garden. 

“They have been very successful ways to involve students in the garden, and we’ve found that having them at different points during the fall and spring semesters allows students to see the fruits of their labor as well as visible changes in the garden through the growing season,” Correiro wrote to The Hoya.

Student Garden Steward Ella Camp (CAS ’26) said her experience helping manage the garden is a good way to put the concepts she’s learned about in the classroom as an environmental biology major into practice.

“I have learned about many of the practices in class that we are implementing in the garden, so it is cool to learn hands-on what I have done in class,” Camp wrote to The Hoya. “I also had no gardening experience before this, so I was excited to learn more about gardening and farming as a whole.” 

Camp is one of five undergraduate student garden stewards who work to help manage and plan the garden. Camp said this experience helps her and other gardeners connect with their work.

“Student gardeners run a lot of the garden and have a huge say in everything that happens in the garden, which makes it feel like we have more of an impact on the garden and that it is also our project and not just something we are helping our manager work on,” Camp wrote.

Correiro said her interest in farming has been met through her experience in the Hoya Harvest Garden, especially with her ability to engage Georgetown students in the planting process. 

“I have always been interested in plants and once I started farming I became more interested in sustainable agriculture and the different ways we can grow food,” Correiro wrote. “I am also interested in education and the Hoya Harvest Garden provides a really exciting way to engage with students and agriculture in academic settings.” 

In the future, Correiro said she plans to reach more people through the Hoya Harvest Garden by continuing to host planting parties, facilitate partnerships with faculty and offer regular volunteer opportunities. 

“We hope to engage students and the broader campus community in the garden through events like Planting Parties and our fall and spring festivals, through partnerships with faculty creating hands-on academic experiences in the garden and through our regular volunteer opportunities for harvest, garden maintenance and bouquet making,” Correriro wrote.