Hort Club enjoys the fruits of their labour
Outside the College of Agriculture and Bioresources greenhouses on Perimeter Road, snow still blankets the ground but inside, vegetable growing season is in full swing—cherry tomatoes hang like bunches of grapes from plants so tall they must be tied horizontally, cucumbers and eggplants ripen on the vine and bell peppers slowly change colour as they mature.
Members of the Horticulture Club in the greenhouse. Clockwise from top left: Karen Tanino (faculty advisor), Danielle Levesque, Steffen Bertelsen and Peter Le.
Photo by Mark Ferguson
But the 1,200 sq. feet of vegetables and herbs along with newly-propagated house plants are not part of a formal research program but rather are the fruits of the labour of students who share an interest in horticulture, particularly in producing their own food. Karen Tanino, associate professor of plant sciences and faculty advisor to the U of S Horticulture Club, sees membership in the student organization as a way for many young people “to enhance their love of plants but it also opens their minds to the scale of horticulture. They discover that you can grow your own food, that it’s not that hard, it’s tasty and you can save money.”
Find out more about the Horticulture Club in On Campus News