UTA Libraries Garden Plot feeds the Body and the Mind About Healthy Eating

To keep lessons fresh about sustainability with students through such programs as Maverick Kitchen and the Bounty of Nature, UTA Libraries joined the community garden on campus a year and a half ago. The vegetables grown from the garden plot are used to educate students about healthy eating and living. 

The UTA website states the organic Community Garden at UT Arlington, built in collaboration with the City of Arlington, has become a public green space for families, community members and garden enthusiasts.  

Milaun Murry, Experiential Learning Librarian, stated the garden plot is a valuable resource in teaching lessons to students. 

“It is not a super huge plot. I want to say that ours is 3-foot by 10-foot. It is a decent size, and it is large enough to grow small basic stuff. We have about nine different pepper plants growing there right now,” Milaun said. “The intent when we got the plot is to make it where 60% of our regular produce, especially for our reoccurring Maverick Kitchen events, came out of that plot.” 

The garden is at 406 Summit Ave., just south of the Sweet Center at the corner of UTA Boulevard and Summit Avenue. It is open to both the UTA community and Arlington residents. People can adopt one of the 78 plots in the half-acre garden. As part of the $35 annual plot use agreement, gardeners donate at least half of their produce to Mission Arlington, the garden’s designated food bank program. The UTA Libraries’ Garden plot is available for anyone on staff and not just limited to library programs.  

As Milaun and her team have been working tending to the plants in the plot, she has been able to learn from her fellow gardeners.  

“I am thankful that a lot of the other plot owners over the last year and a half have worked with me a lot, teaching me how to grow certain things,” Milaun said. “They also volunteer their time and some of their produce.” 

If members of the UTA Libraries staff are interested in exercising their green thumbs in the library’s garden plot they can contact Milaun for more information by email at milaun.murry@uta.edu.