Nestled between Fountain Dining Hall and Doak Field, SOL Garden is NC State’s only student-led, sustainable garden on campus. The members of the club use organic gardening principles as a guiding practice. 

“That’s what SOL actually stands for — students for organic living,” said Debra Mullis, a fourth-year studying political science and treasurer of SOL Garden. “We are a group of people who love plants and really enjoy getting out to form community and make NC State a greener place.” 

To get involved, people can donate money or time, become a member and help care for the garden or rent raised beds to grow plants for personal use. The campus community is also invited to pick and eat food from certain sections of the garden. 

“I want it to be educational for anybody who comes through this space,” said Paige Mager, a fifth-year studying horticultural science and president of SOL Garden. “I want everybody across campus to be able to enjoy this space, whether they are working in it, whether they are renting a raised bed, whether they are just walking through and picking fruit off the trees.” 

SOL Garden is planning to add a food forest, which will include persimmons, pawpaws and figs. 

“A food forest is when you take the layers and form of a natural forest ecosystem,” Mager said. “You mimic it as much as possible while also growing food plants and productive plants.” 

Most of the food grown in the food forest will be given to Feed the Pack food pantry.

“For any beds that aren’t rented out to faculty, or student organizations or individual students — those we use as a garden to plant food for garden members and we plant food to donate to Feed the Pack food pantry,” Mullis said. 

Other groups on campus that have been involved with SOL Garden include PRT 203: Humans and the Environment, Omega Phi Alpha, the psychology department and EcoVillage. 

“This is where students can be a little bit creative, be independent and get in touch with their green thumbs on campus, which I think is a really big stress reliever when you are doing classes,” Mullis said. 

The SOL Garden community is also constantly looking for ways to be inclusive. 

“If anybody goes past the garden … and they are like ‘OK, that makes it impossible for X community to use the garden,’ I would love for them to contact the club and just be like, ‘You could be doing better in this way, for these people,’” Mager said.

The club plans to make all the paths at least three feet wide and will provide fruit pickers to reach fruit in the trees. The club also provides ways to discount the price of renting a raised bed. For those unable to work in the garden, there are opportunities to help with the club newsletter, website and meeting itineraries. 

“Our mission statement is that we want to be an educational and inclusive, interactive space on campus where people can learn about sustainable and more inexpensive methods of agriculture,” Mager said.  

Club meetings are biweekly and workdays are always the second Sunday and fourth Saturday of every month. To sign up for workdays, visit their sign-up schedule. To get involved with SOL Garden, email them at SOLgarden-org@ncsu.edu. 

Debra Mullis is also an employee at NC State Student Media.