1. How to Start an Urban Farm
on your College Campus
Margaret Lloyd mglloyd@ucdavis.edu

2. How did we get from
this to this
in 2 years?
the Salad Bowl Garden
at the University of California (UC), Davis
Margaret Lloyd mglloyd@ucdavis.edu

3. At UC Davis,
anyone can pick a salad
and eat it, too.

4. The Vision
To grow a gorgeous garden that inspires a love of food
growing, expands the limits of where food can be
grown and increases the accessibility of fresh food.
Bring the farm to the people!

5. Why? Trends . . .
1. A decrease in young peoples interest in agriculture as a
career or lifestyle
2. Poor eating habits and food choices (contributing to a
health crisis in the United States)
3. Low exposure to how to grow and eat fresh food
* * *
We hope to reverse these trends by planting
an edible, urban garden.
We hope to stimulate more interest in
agriculture, increase fresh food
consumption, and inspire healthy living.

6. Why UC Davis?
• It’s our MISSION!
– Title 12 of the Land Grant University
• Leading institute in agricultural research and
innovation--
– people look to us for solutions to contemporary
problems
• New Sustainable Agriculture major and Agriculture
Sustainability Institute
• Campus sustainability goals
Why PES?
(Plant and Environmental Sciences Building)
• Central campus location
• Houses the departments of Plant Sciences and LAWR
(land air water resources), neighbors the departments of landscape
architecture, pomology, and hydrology
• Surrounded by experts and research in agriculture!
• Ideal garden beds are already established

7. Goals
1. Teach others how to garden and eat from the
garden
2. Be a bridge between the UCD agricultural
community and the public

8. The Benefits
1. “Living Salad Bar”- fresh food while at UC Davis
2. A model garden for homes
3. Demonstration of agriculture
(the point of our research and studies in PES!)
4. More beauty at the entrance to the building
5. Opportunities- employment, education, research, fun ...

9. How?
• Display educational and instructional information
• Incorporate “local” expertise into the garden
– Research
– Advice team
• Survey-ask the community
• Host lunches, workdays and workshops in the
garden
• Create a garden team
– Paid managers, interns, volunteers
A participatory approach

10. Participatory Approach
• Why is participation important?
– It’s in a community setting
– To generate a sense of pride and
connection to the place
– Want people to be comfortable in the
garden and engage in it
– They are the experts--“Living Classroom”

11. What can you do in 600 square feet?
“Layer your garden project”
Produce food Aesthetic Landscaping
Research Classroom
Employ students Improve morale
Build Community Educational space
Demonstrate home gardening Internship opportunity

12. Phases of the
Project
Lifecycle
from
2008-2010
Phase 1: Establish the garden
Phase 2: Long term development
Phase 3: Institutionalization
Gardening People Power Communication Funding

13. Phase 1: Establish the Garden
• Determine the inputs
Gardening • Find on-campus & local source of inputs
• Find the experts
• Reach out & attract interested folks
People Power • Survey PES
Communication • Use existing listserves
Funding • Campus Sustainability Grant

14. Phase 1: Establish the garden
Permission
• 1st: we got the money
• 2nd: prepared a presentation to UCD
grounds
• Permitted me to plant on a 1x
provisional basis

15. 1. Planning and Design Garden
Activity- “to do” Stakeholder- “how” IMPLEMENTATION
Permission UCD Grounds -Activities & Stakeholders-
Creative design Mark Francis, LDA
Soil Test Mike Singer, LAWR “What do we need to do
Input from the Community PES Surveys and how do we do it?”
2. Bed Preparation 4. General Care
Activity- “to do” Stakeholder- “how” Activity- “to do” Stakeholder- “how”
Compost Student Farm Irrigation UCD Irrigation
- Transport compost UCD Grounds Volunteer schedule
Double digging Garden Crew Trellising Ace
Labeling Garden Crew
3. Transplanting Passers-by
Activity- “to do” Stakeholder- “how”
5. Harvest
Seedlings Grow our own: Student Farm
Surplus: Campus Greenhouses Activity- “to do” Stakeholder- “how”
Wholesale: Kelley’s,
Salad Bowl Lunch PES Community
Sunnyside Nursery,
Others?
Morning Sun Herb Farm
Labeling Garden Crew
Transplanting Garden Crew
Passers-by

16. Phase 1: Establish the garden
Stakeholder Analysis
Who is impacted by the garden project?
• UC Davis
• Department of Plant Sciences & LAWR
• UC Davis Grounds
• Environmental health and safety
• General community/passers-by, esp. those who work/study at PES
• Garden Volunteers
• Eaters--grazers, “Salad Bowl Lunch”
Funders
• Campus Sustainability Grant
• ASUCD
• Dept Plant Sciences, LAWR

17. Phase 1: Establish the garden
Reality Planning
Academic Calendar Nature’s Calendar Students’ calendar
Sept-June + “breaks” aka seasons - Less busy before
- Davis climate is midterms
Solution: very accommodating -then, busier and
1. UCD Grounds maintains busier from
the garden over summer midterm to finals
2. No garden work over
Christmas break
3. Spring break is a Solution:
possible good work time 1. Concentrate work
4. Funding is Sept-June early in the quarter
(10 mo.) 2. Plan well
3. Meet regularly
Salad Bowl Garden Calendar

18. Phase 1: Establish the garden
Garden & Workload Annual Cycle
Fall Qtr Winter Qtr Spring Qtr
Busy Busy Busy
Activity September October November December January February March April May June July August
Gardening
Garden Plan: design x x x
Bed Preparation x x x x x x
Compost x x x x x x
Transplanting x x x x x x x x
Label: Plant ID x x x x xx x x x
Trellising x x x x x
Harvest x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Salad Bowl Lunch x x x x x x x x x
Tool Maintenance x x
Labels: Educational x x x x x x x x x
Fellowship research-?
Funding
Club Application x
Fellowship application
Management x x
Manager application x x x x x
New manager training x x x x x x x x x x

19. Phase 1: Establish the garden
Find existing communication hubs:
List Serves
Department list serves Who is being reached?
• Land Air and Water Resources department: 400 faculty, staff, graduate students
• Int’l Agricultural Development graduate group: 55 graduate students
• Environmental horticulture and urban forestry: 55 undergraduate students
• Horticulture & Agronomy graduate group: 85 graduate students
• Department of Plant Sciences: 400 faculty, staff, graduate students
Organization list serves
• SSA: + 150 faculty, students
Total number of people reached: ~1060 people
Average number at a Salad Bowl Lunch: 40 people
at a Work Day: 5-15 people

20. Phase 1: Establish the garden
Now that we brought
the farm to the
people, how do we
get them to eat it?
Salad Bowl
Lunches!

21. Phase 1: Establish the garden
Funding
Phase 1
Source Campus Sustainability Grant
Amount $1800
• Seedlings
Expenses • Labor

22. Phase 2: Long Term Development
Phase 1: Phase 2:
Establish the Garden Long Term Development
• Determine the inputs • Long term garden
Gardening • Find on-campus & local
infrastructure
source of inputs
• Find the experts • Secure storage unit
• Reach out & attract • Our own group of
People Power interested folks gardeners and eaters
• Survey PES
• SSA meeting
• Salad Bowl Lunches
• Intern
• Use existing list serves • Newspaper and
Communication newsletters
• Additional list serves
• Campus Sustainability
Funding • Campus Sustainability
Grant #2
Grant
• ASUCD: drip irrigation

23. Phase 2: Long term development
Physical Infrastructure
Phase 1 Phase 2
Pathways
Bender
Board
Signage
Irrigation

24. Phase 2: Long Term Development
Funding
Phase 1 Phase 2
Source • Campus 1. Campus Sustainability Grant
Sustainability Grant 2. ASUCD
Amount $1800 1. $2300 (general)
2. $440 (irrigation)
• Seeds • Seedlings
Expenses • Labor • Labels: holders, production
• Trowels, gloves
• Drip irrigation conversion

25. Phase 3: Institutionalization
Phase 1 Phase 2: Long Term Phase 3:
Experimentation Development Institutionalization
• Determine inputs • Garden Manual
• Find source of • Long term garden
Gardening infrastructure • Entrance Sign
inputs
• Find the experts • Tree Care
• Reach out & attract • Our own group of • Hire garden manager
gardeners and eaters
People Power interested folks • Create a core team
• Survey PES • SSA meeting
• Intern • Academic credit
• Use existing
• Newspaper and • Website
Communication listserves newsletters • Garden Manual
• Additional listserves • Garden Sign
• 2nd Campus • Department Support
Funding • 1st Campus Sustainability Grant • Undergraduate
Sustainability Grant • ASUCD:
Fellowship
drip irrigation • Campus Club

26. Phase 3: Institutionalization
Physical Infrastructure
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3
Pathways
Bender
Board
Signage
Irrigation

27. =5-7 people
Phase 3: Institutionalization
=12 people
People Power
=60 people
Gardeners
!
Ea
rs
=60 people
ze
te
(~60 faculty, staff, grad, undergrad . . . )
ra
rs
Total: ~140 people
G
!
Garden
Managers
2 Undergraduate
Graduate
Student
Interns
Advisor
2-5
Expert Advisors
Everyone (12 faculty & staff)
Else “Salad Bowl”
Lunch (~60 folks)
UC Davis community
City of Davis

28. Phase 3: Institutionalization
Communication-
SBG Manual
THE ALL-YOU-NEED SUPERPOWER MANUAL
PES Salad Bowl Garden Manager
Table of Contents
The Garden manager .............................................................................................................. 4 Grants ...................................................................................................................................24
Contract: Grounds and Salad Bowl Garden............................................................................. 5 America the Beautiful Fund, 1 / 20 / 2010 .........................................................................24
If the garden contract is not kept, UCD Grounds will take back the control of the FISKARS, 2 / 1 / 2010.......................................................................................................25
garden.Month–to-Month guide ............................................................................................... 6 ASUCD Irrigation Grant- 5 / 12 / 2009 ..............................................................................28
January ............................................................................................................................... 6 Campus Sustainability Grant 2008, 2009 ...........................................................................30
February ............................................................................................................................. 6 Budget...................................................................................................................................37
March................................................................................................................................. 7 Appendix...............................................................................................................................38
April................................................................................................................................... 7 1. Seed Sowing Guidelines .............................................................................................38
May.................................................................................................................................... 7 2. Crop Notes .................................................................................................................40
June.................................................................................................................................... 7 3. Bed History Templates ...............................................................................................44
July .................................................................................................................................... 8 4. Tomato Varieties—Summer 2009...............................................................................48
6. Student Application ....................................................................................................52
August................................................................................................................................ 8
September .......................................................................................................................... 8
October .............................................................................................................................. 8
November........................................................................................................................... 8
December ........................................................................................................................... 8
“Who ya gonna call” .............................................................................................................10
History of the garden: Bed/Crop rotation ...............................................................................12
History of the garden: Soil Amendments ...............................................................................16
History of the garden: Daily Log ...........................................................................................16
Pre-“Salad Bowl Garden”..................................................................................................16
Year 1-2008.......................................................................................................................16
Year 2-2009.......................................................................................................................17
Year 3-2010.......................................................................................................................17
How to ..................................................................................................................................19
Sow seeds and raise seedlings............................................................................................19
Transplant .........................................................................................................................20
Prepare Beds for planting ..................................................................................................21
Keep track .........................................................................................................................22

29. Phase 3: Institutionalization
Communication-
Entrance Sign
Flyer Box: Include handouts
about “how to”,
varieties, history of
the garden, etc.
Chalkboard
Harvest basket

30. Phase 3: Institutionalization
Communication- saladbowlgarden.ucdavis.edu

31. Phase 3: Institutionalization
Funding
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3
1. Campus Sustainability 1. Departmental Support
Source • Campus Grant 2. Undergraduate Fellowship
Sustainability Grant 2. ASUCD
3. Campus Club
$1800 1. $2300 1. All materials
Amount 2. $440 2. $1000/quarter
3. $500/yr +
• Seeds • Seedlings •Seedlings, seeds
Expenses • Amendments • Amendments •Amendments
• Labor • Bender board •Labels
• Labels
•Trowels, gloves
•Tools
• Drip irrigation •Student stipend
•Entrance sign

32. PROJECT EVALUATION
Has the garden made a difference?
~Impact and Measurable Indicators~
• How much food is produced?
• How many gardeners have we trained?
• How many people eat from the garden?
• Inspired other projects?
• Public image: Positive spotlight on UC Davis

33. How much is produced? (600sqft)
Yield (lbs) Yield (cal)
How many people does this feed?
2008 1,629 181,691 •1 Female (2000 cal/day): 91 days
2009 1,393 216,411 •1 Male (2500 cal/day): 75 days
Servings # of days #
How many servings of salad? (total) (@5 servings people/day
1 serving (raw veggie) = 1 cup vegetables/day)
2008 9886 1977 5.4
1c tomato = 6.3 oz (0.39lb) 2009 8779 1756 4.8
1c broccoli = 2.5 oz (0.16lb)
1c lettuce (shredded)= 1.9 g (0.1212 lb)
Recommended: 3 - 5 to 9 servings vegetables/day

34. Who attends the lunches?
• Year 1: averaged 20 participants
• Year 2: averaged 40 participants
• More women come than men
• More graduate students
than undergraduate
• More staff than faculty
How many have picked their own food before?
•More than 50% have never picked their own food!
•Of those who have, more than 50% learned a new vegetable

35. Have we inspired others?
• YES!
• Already replicated:
1. Health and Wellness center-- built into existing landscape
2. Student Health Services; constructed in NEW health center
3. Mondavi Center “Good Life Garden”
4. Student Dorms-currently underway
• Spearheaded by an undergraduate “salad bowl gardener”
Now, we have created a network of
independently run, small edible gardens
on campus
• Replicate on other Campuses? UC system?

36. “Scaling up”
• Limit on “carrying capacity”-only 600 sqft
– At the moment, we have ~40 people at lunch, 5-15 people at
work days
– 25+ applications for 1 position
• Limit on the # of core team members?
• Integrate into classes
– “field component” requirement
– Internship and academic credit
– “farm to school” at the University level
• Involve more people, in different ways
• Display research from UC Davis
• Include the fine arts in our educational labels or T-shirt
• Music performance at lunch time

37. “Scaling out”
• Develop “package” to set-up, run, fund . . . a garden
– Garden Manual: available on-line
– Train gardeners
• Unify the gardens-
• Share website, have links to other gardens
• Apply for larger grants as a collective of gardens
• Determine how much food is produced collectively
• Develop signs and have them available on-line!

38. Media Coverage
• Internal UCD Stories
– About 1-2x per year, we have an article a UC
Davis paper
– “Local Dirt” university radio program
• Non-campus Coverage
– Local papers (Davis Enterprise)
– Davis Climate Change Action Documentary
– ABC News
– Fox News
– NBC News

39. Lessons Learned
• Build in evaluations and assessments
• What do we want to know? Why?
• More data collection, food diaries, recorded observations . . .
• Build the organizational structure early
• Plan for students involvement on a yearly rotation
• Determine a regular, predictable schedule--momentum is
important
• Most people want to garden and not attend meetings
• Form a strong, positive and cooperative bond with the most
significant stakeholder, in this case UCD grounds
• Early on, discover their concerns, experiences and risk in
your project

40. Interesting Questions
Future Work?
Gleaners-
• What are they doing with it?
• Who is gleaning? Health conditions?
• Who are the customers? (beneficiaries) who’s participating?
Who am I reaching?
•Am I reaching the converted? or am I converting people?
•Vegetarians? Organic, “foodies”? Eating trends?
Does working in the garden replace something?
• If so, what? Opportunity cost? Labor costs?
Food habit changes?
• Are people making food choices at home based on what’s available in the
garden?
•Are people learning from the garden?
•Behavior change--did it inspire action elsewhere? Home?
•Ex. list 10 things you took away from the garden

41. Thank you!
Questions?
Margaret Lloyd
mglloyd@ucdavis.edu
http://saladbowlgarden.ucdavis.edu

42. Verticillium dahliae

43. Morphology
• Hypahe and conidia are mostly haploid Verticillate conidiophores
• Hyaline, septate caenocytic hyphae
•Whorled conidiophores
•Resting Structures: Microscleortia
Light prevents the formation of
diffusible morphogenic factors,
which inhibit hyphal enlongation

44. It’s beautiful!