Mino Aki Gardens

Growing community and education.

The mission of the campus gardens:

• To propagate, nurture, and harvest organic food
• Demonstrate ecological and regionally-appropriate food systems
• Provide living laboratories that broaden students’ academic experiences

We are continuing to strengthen and build our thematic gardens or “living laboratories.” Creating manageable cross-sections of larger food production systems on campus provides demonstration and research opportunities for our students without the burden of significant capitalization requirements.

The Garden Program also provides many campus work-study positions, including garden production and garden planning and development.

Garden History

Northland’s first campus garden was created by a group of student advocates under the cloak of night with a rototiller. Originally known as the Sunshine Garden, it was a community garden with volunteer coordinators and plots free for whoever desired to grow. This garden flourished; bringing people together in a community space with an atmosphere that can only be grown in a garden. At some point, the name of Mino Aki (“Good Earth”) was adopted over Sunshine Garden and reflects the commitment to environmental stewardship.

In 2006, with the expansion of the art building, the garden was relocated adjacent to the McLean Environmental Living and Learning Center and became known as the ELLC (“elk”) garden. A fence was erected and topsoil was trucked in. In the ELLC garden, the tradition of community gardening continued until the summer of 2008, when production shifted focus to supplying the freshman Outdoor Orientation trips.

Also in 2008, students in a sustainable agriculture course were given five project proposals to flush out, three of which were implemented in the spring of 2009: further specializing the ELLC garden for Outdoor Orientation food production with permaculture management principles, the creation of the Gaia’s Community Garden, and a new garden space next to Memorial Hall. Gaia’s Community Garden was a huge success, filling all of its plots with student gardeners before it could even be opened to staff, faculty, and area residents.

The Memorial Garden was upgraded to a landscaped, permanent raised-bed design in 2016 that would be specific to perennial plant species.

The campus recently installed a high tunnel for off-season production and continues to expand the food production, native, perennial, and pollinator gardens for food production and to demonstrate the key themes found within a sustainable food system.