The Gone Garden

Each weekday morning, Garden Manager Anastasia Orkwiszewski takes the daily harvest of parsnips or squash from the University of Montana Dining Services Garden on South Avenue to a shed on campus concealed by metal gates with a sign that reads, “Caution. Do Not Enter.”

 

Two years ago, hundreds of students walked past the on-campus Food Zoo garden every day. The garden, tucked between the Lommasson Center and Craig Hall, mainly grew food for the Food Zoo, but was also home to six much-loved Food Zoo ducks.

 

Today, the on-campus garden no longer exists, wiped out by construction of a $27 million dining hall. 

Only a shed that processes harvests from the South Avenue Food Zoo garden survived the demolition of Craig Hall. A wooden fence and a wall from the Lommasson Center blocks the shed from the ongoing construction surrounding it. 

 

Loud clashes that sound like bombs shake the ground as Orkwiszewski, UM senior Jett Tuohy and freshman Olivia Rial wash parsnips and hang herbs to dry.

 

Orkwiszewski doesn’t even flinch. She listens to the band Hozier and instructs her students. She’s been dealing with the noises for months.

 

The construction of the new dining center and the demolition of Craig Hall have been in the works for almost a year. University officials have said the campus renovations, including a new art museum and heating plant, are the largest upgrades seen in generations. 

 

For Orkwiszewski, there seems to be no end in sight. 

 

Orkwiszewski advocated that the demolished garden get replaced after the construction projects end in the next few years, but University officials said the new construction currently doesn’t include a plan for the Food Zoo garden. 

 

Now Orkwiszewski must work with a fraction of the garden space she used to have, and she said the limitations are showing. 

 

Working with less

 

On the day of the demolition, Orkwiszewski realized she left her wheelbarrow at the garden. Her friends and co-workers sent her pictures and videos of the demolition last January. 

 

A crane at the demolition site picked up her wheelbarrow while tearing apart the garden and dropped it on the ground to be smashed. Orkwiszewski said she couldn’t come in-person to witness the demolition because she was sick. 

 

She also thought she had more time before the demolition began. 

 

“It was over the course of many days, but that was a dramatic day,” Orkwiszewski said. “It was definitely bittersweet and hopefully there are better things to come.” 

 

Orkwiszewski has kept up to date on all of the construction plans being made for campus in the next few years, but worries that the sustainable and on-campus garden will be forgotten in all of the changing plans. 

 

“I think it’s a significant loss to campus that we don’t have (that garden) anymore, and I really am hopeful that once things die down we can re-establish a vibrant garden that’s right on campus,” Orkwiszewski said.

 

Jameel Chaudhry, the associate director of Planning Design and Construction at UM, said there is not a specific plan for a new Food Zoo garden on campus. UM’s priority is laying out the blueprint for the new dining center, according to Chaudhry. 

 

“The likelihood (of a new garden) is looking rather slim right now,” Chaudhry said. “It doesn’t make the most sense.” Chaudhry also said he is prioritizing parking for the new dining center and making it more accessible for food deliveries by truck. He plans to figure out what else to do when the University knows how much extra space there is, if any. 

 

Dave Kuntz, director of strategic communications at UM, reinforced Chaudry’s statements that the University is waiting to see if there is any space available after construction is underway. Kuntz also emphasized that he is aware campus dining has a “strong desire” for the campus garden to return.

 

Once the first floor concrete slab of the new renovation is poured, Chaudhry said he will have a better idea of the extent of the footprint. 

 

Chaudry mentioned that the Food Zoo already has a garden inside the Lommasson Center that provides microgreens for student dining.  

 

“(That is) obviously pretty disappointing, but not a surprise,” Orkwiszewski said when the Kaimin told her Chaudry’s comment that there may not be a new garden to replace the old Food Zoo plot.

 

A major factor to educate students on the UM gardens is transparency, according to Orkwiszewski, and the loss of the on-campus garden makes this a challenge. 

 

“I want people to know that [dining] is really doing our best, because we get a lot of criticism about everything we do,” Orkwiszewski said. 

 

The garden catered 4,110 pounds of fresh food worth $13,371 to campus dining in 2021 and provided a winter home for the ducks. There also used to be a solar greenhouse that the ducks would use in the winter. 

 

The on-campus garden produced more than 60 varieties of herbs and vegetables, according to UM’s website.

 

What about the ducks?

 

The Food Zoo added six female Welsh Harlequin ducks to UM’s Food Zoo garden in 2018. Orkwiszewski has raised them since they were ducklings. One benefit of having the ducks in the garden is their poop acts as a fertilizer for the plants and vegetables.

 

After the construction started last year, the ducks moved to a homestead owned by a co-worker of Orkwiszewski for the winter. Newborn goats at that homestead forced the ducks to remain at the South Avenue garden this winter.

 

Orkwiszewski and her students rotate daily duties to check on the ducks. During the winter, they will have to make sure their water isn’t frozen in their chicken-wired home. Their water will be kept thawed by a bucket warmer. 

 

For now, UM gardeners are preparing for winter. Orkwiszewski will pick the remaining produce at the first frost, then she will weed the South Avenue garden until the soil is completely frozen. 

She will then have more time educate students in the classroom and assess what went well and what didn’t during that season. Usually, Orkwiszewski doesn’t visit the off-campus garden frequently during the winter, but this year she’ll be managing the ducks.

 

Practical education

 

Orkwiszewski said she didn’t know she wanted to work at the gardens until she came to UM for graduate school after the Peace Corps. During her time in graduate school, she interned with the PEAS Farm. 

 

The PEAS Farm, which stands for Program in Ecological Agriculture and Society, gives students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with sustainable agriculture they learn about in the classroom. The 10-acre farm contains different types of farming to support Missoula’s local food system.

 

From there, her interest in gardening grew. While apprenticing with other farms in the area after graduate school and working as a barista, the position to be a UM Gardens Manager opened up. She applied, got the job and has been in charge for seven years. 

 

“I think my favorite part is being able to interact with and teach students and just get other people excited about growing,” Orkwiszewski said. “I think it’s such an incredible life skill they can really use, and it can be healing for a lot of people.”

 

Tuohy and Rial, the two students helping Orkwiszewski in the shed, started working with Orkwiszewski this semester. Tuohy, a geoscience major, heard about the job opportunity through a friend. 

 

“One of my goals in life is to have a sustainable homestead,” Tuohy said. “The gardens are teaching me so much, like the processes of gardening year round and seeing the connectivity of soil and plants.”

 

Owen Lee, a junior majoring in sustainability sciences and practices, works with Orkwiszewski every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning to harvest and prepare produce for the Food Zoo. 

 

Lee is an international student from South Korea, but has lived in the Bay Area of San Francisco most of his life. In the future, Lee hopes to work in sustainable production and the UM garden’s internship provided him with an opportunity to start his career. 

 

Due to federal regulations, Lee can’t work outside campus, so the Food Zoo garden was essentially his only option. 

 

On-campus visibility

 

Having the Food Zoo garden on campus with the ducks walking around attracted student attention in the garden, according to Orkwiszewski. However, the Food Zoo still struggled to help students understand what exactly they were doing with the garden.

 

There are several gardens on campus, each with its own purpose. The Payne Family Native American Center’s ethnobotany garden, run by UM Natural Areas specialist Marilyn Marler, educates students on native plant species. 

 

The University Center Gardens grow vegetables, herbs and medicinal plants. The UC garden on the west side of the building produces parsley, dill, vegetables and edible flowers. 

The garden mainly serves the UC’s internal catering and dining.

 

Plant tours are also offered for each of these gardens, by gardening staff, to educate students and faculty around campus.

 

Kelly Chadwick, UC Gardens’ previous manager of 35 years, thought there was a plan from the board of regents for Montana that included a new garden located near the Lommasson Center. Orkwiszewski also assumed that a new garden would be a discussion. 

 

Chadwick, who retired last year, said that “most of the gardens are purposeful and they have the intention of being educational.” 

 

Orkwiszewski hopes to increase student involvement with the garden over the next few years. She wants to encourage more students to reach out with questions, and be more intentional about her advertising for the Food Zoo garden to reach more students through social media.

 

She says that most people don’t know about what goes on behind the scenes of UM Dining, like efforts to mainly purchase local foods and make some meals from scratch. The beef also comes from local ranches.

 

“Since there’s no garden people can walk by every day, I definitely have to get out there more,” Orkwiszewski said. “I’ll definitely be changing my strategy.”