Horticulture club plans off-campus nursery project

By: Melanie Yoes

Despite a lingering drought that has parched native plants, gardens and lawns throughout the area, the Texas State Horticulture club, Hortus Colere, is preparing a 40-acre, off-campus site for use as part of a Community Supported Agriculture nursery project for future students and potential consumers.

The Horticulture club, which is responsible for maintaining much of the university landscaping, plans to use an existing structure on the site, located on state hwy. 21 east of San Marcos, to construct a nursery and also intends to develop the dusty, weed-strewn land surrounding the building into a working farm.

“The land has been available to the university for a while now but I think this is the first time that a student organization has been able to do something with it. We have a great group of students who are making this happen,” said Aron Feathers, a club member.

The club plans to sell the fruit and vegetables they produce to support the project during the bi-monthly farmers market in the quad and also to local consumers that visit the nursery, according to club president A.J. Perez.

“There is an abandoned building already on the property that we are hoping to turn into a nursery at some point. We plan to grow a variety of edible plants that we can sell at the campus farmers market to support our cause, or maybe someday have people come pick the vegetables off the vine here,” said Perez.

Members of the group are working to update an outdated irrigation system in the building in anticipation of their future water needs.

“There’s already a water system in the building, but we need to install a drip irrigation system. It’s the most effective form of watering plants because so much moisture is lost through evaporation when you try to use a ceiling system like this place has. We had about 40 peach trees already at the site when we got it that survived the drought and are in pretty good shape so we’re lucky. There are a few farms around the site and the soil is good, so we just have to get it ready,” Perez said.

The Horticulture club acquired the 40-acre site through the Texas State University system, but intends to seek grant funding from the Environmental Services Committee to expand the project. The club hopes to receive a grant by the end of the month and is preparing the 40-acre site for a year-long growing season starting next semester.

“We’re going to start tilling the soil and sowing seeds now so the farm should be perfect for planting next semester.” Perez said.

The facility will also function as an off-campus learning environment for students majoring in agriculture or horticulture.

“Once we get the farm ready, Texas State will be able to have an ag-business class completely about growing vegetables and fruit, which they haven’t had before because they don’t have any space for it,” said Perez.

“We really haven’t been able to practice the business skills we’ve learned in our classes since we just work in the campus greenhouse, but now we’ll be able to interact with the public and use those skills on a larger scale,” said Dag Osorio, Horticulture club Treasurer, regarding the new site.

Osorio believes the group’s project will continue to grow and receive support in the future due in part to a new eco-friendly attitude that he’s noticed on the Texas State campus.

“I think we’re relying on the increasing environmental awareness of students here,” Osorio said. “We’re really just trying to be as sustainable as we possibly can be.”

The Texas State Horticulture club is open to students of all majors and classifications who have a GPA of 2.0 or higher. For more information contact A.J. Perez at ap1306@txstate.edu.