In a small nook between the Storch Memorial Building and the Hill Tennis Stadium lies Trinity’s very own plant oasis. The Trinity Community Garden is home to several native Texas plants, like the Texas prickly pear cactus, alongside many varieties of fruits, vegetables and herbs. Members of the Trinity Gardening Club and students in the Gardening in South Central Texas course — like us — oversee almost every aspect of the community garden, including planting, weeding, watering and harvesting what’s grown in the garden.

This fall and winter season, we’ve seen many different plants flourishing and available for harvest in the garden. Flourishing blackberry plants and cherry tomatoes ripening on their vines surround us in the garden. We find carrots, peppers and radishes growing in the beds, alongside several kinds of leafy greens, like kale and bok choy.

The community garden has been a fun and convenient place for us to volunteer and learn more about gardening. We’ve attended the Gardening Club’s frequent service events and garden beautification projects, which are open to all Trinity students and members of the community. During these events, we took care of the garden and engaged in creative activities to keep the garden a welcoming space.

We and other students and members of the Gardening Club actively work to keep the garden completely sustainable and environmentally friendly. The pollinator garden attracts wild pollinators to the garden and helps sustain the bee population in San Antonio. The garden does not rely on any chemical pesticides and is currently in the process of upgrading the composting bins, which can be found within the garden.

We loved getting more involved with the community garden through the Gardening in South Central Texas course. We played an active role in the course by keeping up and improving the garden. We learned about the fundamentals of sustainable gardening and how to create their own gardens, and are currently working to start propagation in Trinity’s greenhouse, plant and grow new crops, and improve beekeeping at Trinity.

While often overlooked or passed by Trinity students, the community garden is central to us as a place to volunteer, hang out or just take a moment to appreciate the beauty of Trinity’s campus.