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Nathalie LeBlanc set no lofty goals when she started gardening at the community garden at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) Saint John campus in 2017.

“I never gardened before,” said LeBlanc. “My first year, I had one of the raised plots and bought some starter plants. My goal was they would still be alive by fall, and I made my goal.”

She also managed a harvest. Seven years after that encouraging first attempt, LeBlanc is still gardening and is now the president of the Saint John campus garden committee.

“The committee is basically whoever among the gardeners I can wrangle into helping me maintain the garden,” she said, adding that the committee usually includes a president, treasurer and secretary.

The UNB Saint John and Fredericton community gardens provide more than places to grow vegetables. They offer green havens for students, faculty and staff, as well as community, sustainability, and wellness spaces.

The Saint John campus garden is located near the Canada Games Stadium. It opened in 2014 and is also available to the Saint John NBCC community. It has 36 plots, one of which is allocated to milkweed to sustain monarch butterfly caterpillars, and another to wildflowers.

Participation costs $20 for faculty and staff, while the campus Green Society, a student-led environmentalist organization, donates $500 a year in return for students getting their plots free. This support has successfully increased student participation, LeBlanc said.

The garden is fenced and locked and offers tools, soil, composting, three water sources and free seeds from previous gardeners. LeBlanc said it is fully booked for this season.

After it closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, gardeners rallied to reopen it.

“It was very overgrown,” LeBlanc recalled, but the plots were cleared and brought back into production.

“You have to maintain it constantly, every year, or it grows in,” LeBlanc said.

The garden committee advertises online to get attention, but much of it is word-of-mouth.

“People already gardening tell their friends and co-workers and then their co-workers say, ‘Oh, that sounds cool. Who do I talk to?’”

Unlike the UNB Saint John campus, where the garden is independent, at the UNB Fredericton campus the Student Union oversees the garden behind the Neville Homestead. Kierra MacAlpine, vice-president of events and services, plays a pivotal role.

“We had a volunteer help clear out the garden, but I’ve taken on more of a role overseeing operations this year,” MacAlpine said.

COVID-19 closed the Fredericton garden too and the demolition of an adjacent building led to its closure for a year. It is gradually returning to life as overgrown plots are cleared in sections by a summer employee as demand requires.

There are 42 Fredericton plots, three reserved for the Student Union. Participation in the Fredericton garden is open to UNB students, staff and faculty. It costs $20, which includes a $10 deposit that is refunded if gardeners clear their plot of debris at the end of the season.

This garden is also equipped with tools, and a rain barrel and a hose for watering. It is fenced, but the gate is not locked.

MacAlpine said the garden promotes better living.

“It gets gardeners more involved in healthy, nutritious food and is a sustainable way of growing those things yourself. Many people get excited and take pride in what they have grown,” she said.

MacAlpine said the vegetables grown in the three Student Union plots will be given away to students in the fall outside the Student Union Building. She also hopes a fall weekly market can be held this year, in which case the produce will be given to students there.

Esme Newling, UNB’s sustainability engagement coordinator, said gardening is part of a broader effort to promote sustainability and local food production on campus, which aligns with UNB’s campus sustainability and climate change action plans.

“One of the goals is to support opportunities on campus for growing and purchasing local food. Supporting the community gardens in partnership with our free food planters program is partly how we’re achieving that goal,” Newling said, referring to planters around the two campuses which will provide free vegetables to anyone who wants them.

“Some students have never gardened before. Some of the faculty and staff participants are more experienced gardeners,” she said.

The Fredericton garden still has many plots available.

“We’re trying to bring it back to life because when it wasn’t used for a few years during COVID, it took time to get it back to where it was,” MacAlpine said.

“We’re going to apply for more grants to update it and repair the plots. Some fruit trees in there are starting to grow, and we’ll try some more stuff like that for the long term,” said MacAlpine.

Newling said gardening is about more than fresh food.

“It provides sustainable and healthy food options, but there is a sense of accomplishment, and time spent outside is very important for mental well-being, especially over the summer.”

James Kieffer is a professor at the department of biological sciences at the UNB Saint John campus who started gardening at the community garden before the pandemic. He called the space “outstanding” and visits it three to five times a week.

“To pick and eat fresh produce is very rewarding from a nutritional perspective and gardening provides another activity that enhances and improves aspects of my physical and mental health,” he said.

“I always feel relaxed when in the garden. From a financial perspective, gardening can substantially reduce food costs. From a social perspective, it is always fun to chat with the other gardeners and to watch the changes that occur in the plots over the summer.”

LeBlanc, whose hands are frequently in the soil tending to her own Saint John plot, also finds time spent there valuable.

“You are not typically on your phone, at least as much as you would be in an office. People say they like to come down on their lunch break and pull weeds to fight stress. Gardening is perfect for that.”

Photo 1: UNB Saint John campus community garden committee president Nathalie LeBlanc working in her plot.

Photo 2: UNB Fredericton campus Student Union Kierra MacAlpine, vice-president of events