Whitman’s organic garden is a resource available to students and the community that remains largely untapped.

The garden is located across the street from the Physical Plant, on the corner of Penrose Ave. and Pacific Ave.

The garden is run by a core group of about five to 10 students. They are advised by Bob Biles, who works at the Physical Plant and is knowledgable about organic farming practices. The garden is run rather informally.

“Anyone can go to the garden whenever they want to and pick fruits and vegetables, and the only rule is if you pick something you should do a little bit of weeding,” said Mica Quintana, who is president of the club.

The garden is a place for people of all skills.

“It’s not a very intimidating place at all. I actually don’t really know that much about gardening. We’re all learning together,” said Quintana.

For those who want a more guided experience, there are now standard open gardening hours.

“At open gardening there is someone who knows what to do, to guide people, every Friday 3:30 to 6 p.m. and Saturday 1:30 to 4 p.m. We’ve made it standard so anyone can come by whenever they want,” said Quintana.

The garden is open to the Walla Walla community, but community involvement has not yet been a focus of the club.

“It is open to the community but we haven’t done very much community involvement lately. In the past they have. We try to involve the community, if they walk by we talk to them about the garden,” said Quintana.

The garden is participating in Dirt Day, which is an event hosted by the Farmer’s Market on Saturday, May 12.

“Dirt Day is an event that the Farmer’s Market puts on for children –– environmental education for kid’s day. The garden is going to have a booth and help kids plant seeds in egg cartons that they can take home with them, which we’ve done in past years,” said Quintana.

Sophomore club member Brittany Smith asks that people donate their egg cartons to the Outhouse for this event.

The club aims to be more integrated with the community in the future.

“We want to involve the community more, I’m not sure in what way. In the past elementary students have been involved, and I think it would be a good idea to start that again,” said Quintana.

The garden primarily serves as a means of recreation and learning. “It’s not so much focused on production because we don’t need to feed people from it, it is more to show students how organic gardens work and to provide a place for them to experiment with organic gardening and to experience growing their own food,” said Quintana.

The garden also serves as way for people to be connected to the community in which they live.