Garden Volunteering -- Please Join Us!
Padrón Campus is urban and working to grow our garden presence. There are now three main green spaces on campus as well as demonstration aquaponics work indoors and out.
Please join us in these efforts! Some garden work is done every Tuesday at 3pm, before weekly Wellness Walks at 4pm. It's possible to volunteer on other days and times, too.
Volunteers should plan to wear work clothes and gloves if needed. Please bring drinking water.
David McGuirk Memorial Zen Garden
Located across from the employee parking lot (SW 6th Street)
Associate Professor David McGuirk (English, Literature and Sociology), who passed away in 2014, was passionate about environmental sustainability. Along with leading Earth Day and Sustainability Committee activities at Padrón Campus, he assisted faculty and staff in developing co-curricular learning opportunities for students in sustainability and Earth Literacy, as well as with efforts to create and maintain a ‘green’ campus environment.
The Zen Garden contains primarily plants native to our region, but it also includes some food crops (collard greens, tomatoes, peppers, etc) -- including an aquaponics demonstration system.
(firebush)
(coontie cycad)
(cranberry hibiscus)
(wild coffee)
MLK Butterfly Garden
Located at the corner of SW 6th Street and SW 25th Avenue (inside the employee parking lot)
Student, faculty and staff created this garden in January 2022 as a way to remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and help to improve the campus environment. The garden contains primarily plants that are native to our region.
- Reading List: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Environment
- Four ways Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. left his mark on the environmental movement
- Remembering MLK: The Environmental Justice Activist (video - one hour)
(Blue Porterweed)
(Goldenrod)
(Locustberry)
(Sea Torchwood)
UrbanaSpace (Pine Rocklands Habitat)
Located at the corner of SW 6th Street and SW 25th Avenue.
Pine rocklands are a globally imperiled ecosystem native to Southeast Florida, with plant and animal species found nowhere else. After winning a Public Space Challenge offered by The Miami Foundation, Padrón Campus transformed part of its landscaping into pine rockland habitat.
Garden Volunteering Team Leaders
Thriving with Nature: Gardening is Good for Health & Well-Being