Students To Launch Community Garden At Homestead Campus

When Jack Taks first set foot on Homestead Campus in August of 2022, he was surprised there was no on-campus garden.

“I found [that to be] crazy because Homestead is big on agriculture,” he said.

The 20-year-old, who has been gardening for more than a decade, wanted to bring community and conservation education to Miami Dade College.

Last April, Taks, a landscape architecture major, partnered with classmate Helen Tarrau to make the garden a reality. 

The $40,000 project, which Tarrau hopes will be completed by the summer, will be funded by the campus and housed in the grassy area in front of building G, behind building A and building H.

It will feature fauna like Bridie flowers and vegetables such as bok choy, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, broccoli and carrots, Taks said.

There will also be South Florida native plants like coontie palm, locus berries, beauty berries and wild lime to attract pollinators and create a safe haven for the Pine Rocklands, one of most endangered habitats.

The approximately 680 sq. ft. outdoor space will be made with recycled wood pallets, which will be used to build the planter beds. 

Concrete slabs were recently placed as a foundation to make the garden accessible for people with disabilities. Marble chip rocks will surround the concrete slabs, along with a mural and trellises for native Florida plants to grow.

A groundbreaking took place last spring. Students used shovels to scoop dirt from a mound where the garden will be.

The student-led project will offer students hands-on experience in gardening. An open-house and day of service is planned to plant seeds and paint, design and build the garden beds. 

Workshops will be conducted to show students  gardening practices they can implement at home, such as composting. In the future, the team hopes to host events to plant seeds and have workshops on the importance of pollinators and worms.

“We’re the Homestead Campus, like, we’re ‘home,’” Tarrau said. “In my mind the garden will just make it more nurturing, more us. And it also gives students a chance to learn.”

Taks and Tarrau, who are members of the Homestead Gardening Innovation and Awareness Club, worked together on the design of the garden. 

“I remember when we met a long time ago, we were discussing locations for this garden that they wanted to create and [Jack] hand drew everything,” said Laura Rodriguez, the director of campus administration at Homestead Campus who is overseeing the project. “He had photos of trees and everything else. It was quite beautiful.” 

For more information, contact Tarrau at helen.tarrau001@mydc.net. 

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