Texas A&M’s Holistic Garden’s themed plantings enable, educate and encourage.

By Mary Vinnedge ’75, Texas A&M Foundation

Texas A&M University’s Holistic Garden was created in 1984 by Dr. Joe Novak, a senior horticulture lecturer in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Originally a 30-by-30-foot plot, the Holistic Garden now covers nearly two acres on the West Campus. It is a living laboratory for Aggie horticulture students.

"Dr. Novak wants students and kids to learn," said Luis Castillo ’07, programs coordinator for the Holistic Garden. "It’s his passion."

Organic practices used in the Holistic Garden work with nature rather than fight it, optimizing money, resources and time. Compost--plus occasional applications of organic fertilizers such as alfalfa meal and blood meal--improves the soil. To control pests ranging from fire ants to aphids, Holistic Garden workers brew compost tea. Lacewings, parasitic wasps, ladybugs and other beneficial insects are encouraged to multiply and linger in the garden.

In 2009, the garden’s silver-anniversary year, about 1,000 Aggies will plant, propagate, prune, weed and feed. Another 2,000 people will come for educational tours, therapy, enjoyment and training.

The Holistic Garden hosts therapy sessions for at-risk youths as well as residents from assisted living and veterans’ centers. The staff and students also train special-needs gardeners in the Enabling Garden, one of several on-site specialty gardens. Within the Enabling Garden, those challenged by paralysis, blindness, arthritis, heart conditions, multiple sclerosis and more can participate by using adaptive tools (short hoes, special pruners and foam-handled hand-cultivators, for instance) and special planting areas.

Novak is planning holistic therapy sessions for students with Down syndrome and autism from schools in College Station and Bryan. Planting stimulates physical, intellectual and social skills. Youngsters fill containers with soil, plant seeds and apply water. Students improve cognition by remembering the steps, and when they help classmates, they build social skills.

Programs of the Holistic Garden, which employs 10 student workers in majors ranging from horticulture and landscape architecture to construction science and management, are financed by student fees, plant sales, grants and gifts that go into a non-endowed Holistic Garden Fund held by the Texas A&M Foundation. The garden’s $80,000 annual budget includes operating expenses such as student wages, plant and materials purchases, and facility maintenance. About 55 percent of the budget comes from plant sales open to the public; 25 percent from class fees; 15 percent from gifts, special projects and miscellaneous sources; and 5 percent from fees for workshops and educational programs.

Novak hopes additional donations will endow the fund so it will permanently support internships, scholarships, expanded vegetable and fruit research, demonstration plantings, and a teaching garden apprenticeship program.

For more information about supporting the Holistic Garden and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, contact Monica Delisa, senior director of development, at (800) 392-3310.

This is an excerpt from the article "Growing Places" in the summer 2009 issue of Spirit magazine. Visit giving.tamu.edu and select ‘Publications’ to read the full article, watch a video tour of the Holistic Garden and download a desktop wallpaper of flowers from the garden.