Clemson University's landscape becoming edible

By Max Sewesky

CLEMSON, SC –  March 28, 2011 – Fig, pomegranate and blueberry plants have been planted outside Clemson University’s Fernow Street Café as a part of Campus Edible Landscape, a project that aims to make Clemson’s campus more environmentally friendly — and tastier.

Michael Whitmire, a graduate student studying planning, design and the built environment, is coordinating the project. He is pursuing his degree with a focus on permaculture, sustainability and community.

We were trying to find plants that would bear fruit during the fall semester when students return to school, he said. With blueberries and figs, that was a bit of a challenge.

Ideally, students and others could snack on fesh produce they pick as they stroll around the campus.

Whitmire used information from The Happy Berry, a pick-your-own berry farm in Six Mile, to plan for the project. The information helped him choose late-fruiting plant varieties, which ideally will mean available fruit growing outside of Fernow Street Café when it opens for the fall semester. Several species were chosen as a test to find the most viable candidates for planting in other locations around campus.

Edible landscaping is a part of the up-and-coming ecological movement, Whitmire said. Growing nutritious food at home, in the cities and wherever there’s useful space is a part of the relocalization and resiliency efforts that are so important right now for our ecological consciousness.

These sort of initiatives go all the way back to Clemson’s founding mission and connect up with the sustainability leadership directions we need to be going if we are to be global players in environmental justice and progress, said Whitmire.

He hopes that when it’s completed, the campuswide project will provide healthy fruit, right there, where people can eat it on the way to class or work or going home.