By Amidst the background scenery of Grow Beach Garden, students got their green thumb ready at Grow Beach’s hosted event Plant a Plant, where they were invited to plant their own succulent and learn more about the program.
Potting stations were set up right next to the Grow Beach Garden. Tables were equipped with an array of different gardening essentials including gloves, soil, planting pots, succulents and more.
An unattended potting station with a multitude of gardening gloves, a trowel, an empty plastic planter and two successfully potted succulents. Photo credit: Ellie Creighton
Students who RSVP’d ahead of time signed in to the exclusive, hands-on event and sat at one of the many potting stations with their friends. The event began shortly after everyone joined, where one of the hosts gave the initial instructions on potting succulents.
Participants were directed to put on gloves and place a small amount of dirt into the bottom of the planting pot, patting it down with a trowel. The hosts circulated the potting stations, giving tips and gardening information to students during the succulent potting process.
After the first step was completed, students then repotted the succulents by removing the plastic planters and transferring them into their pot.
For the last step, students filled any remaining gaps around the planted succulents with soil and watered them.
A close-up of a successful transfer of a succulent in its new pot next to some gardening gloves. Photo credit: Ellie Creighton
After successfully potting their succulents, Parth Balchandani, a USU sustainability assistant and one of event hosts, guided attendees to the Grow Beach Garden for a tour.
Walking around the garden, Balchandani showed participants different types of edible plants and grown herbs such as strawberries, broccoli and rosemary.
Parth Balchandani, an ASI sustainability assistant, gives a tour of the Grow Beach Garden to the event's participants. Photo credit: Ellie Creighton
What is grown in the Grow Beach Garden is harvested and donated to ASI’s Laurén Chalmers ‘83 Beach Pantry for students to enjoy, promoting sustainability and food security efforts on campus.
Students were also informed on how to volunteer and participate at the Grow Beach Garden.
“They can work with us, they can volunteer with us, so we just need to spread the word for our garden because not many people know about the Grow Beach Garden,” Balchandani said.
After the tour, students returned back to their potting stations and picked up their succulents.
“They [succulents] are good for the environment, obviously because they’re plants and learning something new isn’t bad. Planting and getting a succulent in their [student’s] house, there are health and environmental benefits. Just to plant at your home,” Balchandani said.
Through hands-on engagement, Grow Beach’s Plant a Plant event promoted student interest in campus sustainability and its environment. By planting and learning how to take care of their succulents, students not only learned gardening skills, but also cultivated environmentally conscious minds.
Keep on the look out for future Grow Beach and Sustain U events here.
