About

 About the Garden

Mission:  

The mission of the Virginia Tech Indigenous Community Garden is to foster community and relationships while conserving Indigenous holistic regenerative agriculture techniques. People from all walks of life come together at the Indigenous Community Garden to work toward nation-building, health and well-being promotion, sustainability, and advocacy of restorative justice initiatives in foodways. Serving the Indigenous community at Virginia Tech, the communities of Yesáh, and other Indigenous Nations, the Indigenous Community Garden embodies Virginia Tech's motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve).

As the garden plot was established in the Spring of 2014 through the efforts of Dr. Sam Cook, Dr. John Gailbrath, Dr. Jeff Kirwan (Nause-Waiwash Band of Indians), and Victoria Ferguson (Monacan Indian Nation), The Indigenous Community Garden functions through the development into the current traditional ecological knowledge. Since the garden's founding, its growers have operated through continuous works on soil remediation, companion cropping, and documenting efficient eco-conscience agricultural techniques. Performing prescribed garden burns to clear dead plant debris, interrupt pest cycles, and supply vital nutrients for plant development. Due to the absence of natural waterway sources near the garden plot, The Indigenous Community Garden operates through dry farming and the incorporation of ceramic forms of irrigation. Through collecting coffee grounds from Blacksburg local coffee shops like Bollos, collecting food waste/scraps and discarded materials like cardboard, newspaper, and shredded paper, the Indigenous Community Garden is able to create rich, fertile soil each year at minimal or no cost in order to grow its sacred heirlooms. Through the continuous application of prescribed garden burning and application of organic composting, the garden does not rely on mechanical means of tillage nor utilization of chemical means of fertilizers and pesticides.