Cultivating a sustainable campus community garden through creation of place

This paper describes a revitalization project for a community garden on the University of Kentucky campus in Lexington, KY, USA. Although the garden was heavily utilized prior to the project, a lack of organized design and gardener engagement kept the garden from realizing its potential. A multi-disciplinary effort was led by agriculture and design faculty, alongside students, campus stakeholders, and community residents, to re-envision an identity that would promote physical, ecological, and socio-cultural sustainability whereby transforming this functional “space” into a “place.” Undergraduate students participated in Transformative Sustainable Learning experiences as a pedagogical framework to guide the redesign process, resulting in a garden increasingly utilized by a diverse, multigenerational community. However, ongoing gardener, stakeholder, and facilities commitment are key to sustaining the improved infrastructure and aesthetics of the garden if this “place” and the community it has fostered will continue to grow and flourish.