College’s Student Gardens Sowing Seeds of Tolerance

For many students, the plots of rich soil at Ventura College are learning tools that provide precious hands-on gardening experience.

But amid the Walla Walla onions and the sweet-smelling roses, a peculiar situation has sprouted.

The agriculture program has drawn transients who have signed up for classes and then staked a claim over the college garden.

For these students, the plots of land carry more than academic credit. They have come to consider the college campus their own backyards.

“It’s been a nice peaceful place to come to listen to the birds and watch the flowers,” said Bob, 44, one of two transients who currently keep college gardens. “It’s a place where I can come to feel the presence of God.”

In order to plant a garden in a 200- to 300-square-foot plot, a student must enroll in at least one agriculture course, said Ron Rodrigues, who heads the department and teaches most of the classes. Of the nearly 40 plots, about half are filled with student gardens.

Sprawled across 5 acres at the college nursery are the student plots and several greenhouses, Oriental and rose gardens, a lush green lawn and an orchid house. Rodrigues started the program in 1965.

Besides offering 18 classes on subjects such as plant biology and soil and water science, the department serves disabled students, who regularly participate in the planting and upkeep of a garden.

The nursery draws students from various walks of life, Rodrigues said, including some down-and-out people who adopt the grounds as their home.

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Two of the eight students who currently keep plots are transients, but officials believe more hang out there during off hours. Occasionally, the early morning groundskeeper discovers someone snoozing in the tall cornfields or banana bushes.

“There’s one [transient] who barges in on students in classes and starts using equipment,” student Barbara Briggs said. “Then she won’t leave. We’ve had to call the campus police several times to get her out of the shade house.”

Rodrigues says he doesn’t have the heart to kick the transients out--nor does he have the authority to do so.

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“Sometimes it does create a disharmony for people who are here to take classes,” Rodrigues said. “A lot of students have objected, but we are a public institution. We can’t throw people out because of their lifestyle.

“We’ve just kind of lived with it, frankly,” he added.

Longtime gardeners are also sympathetic. Ethel and Don Little, who have kept a college garden for seven years, have far less patience for the students who plant gardens and abandon them.

“They take a class to learn about gardening, then they start one up,” Don Little said. “But I think what happens is they learn it’s a lot of hard work.”

The Littles have grown everything from pumpkins and sweet peas to eggplant in their college garden, which they so cherish that they built a fence around it to protect it from dogs.

“We just enjoy it,” Ethel Little said on a quiet morning before most students had filed onto campus.

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She poked minuscule tarragon, oregano and wintergreen seeds into the thick, dark soil. “It’s more of a hobby for us than something we’re doing to get any sort of degree.”

Next to the couple’s perfectly manicured garden sit two transients’ plots cluttered with white plastic chairs and bags filled with personal belongings.

The Littles are tolerant of their neighbors.

“I talk to her all the time,” Ethel Little said of a transient woman who keeps a college garden and lives in a nearby motor home with her three dogs. “And if I can cut some flowers and bring her a little bouquet to make her feel better, I do. Anyone can lose their home. You never know if it will happen to you.”

Bob, the transient man who declined to give his last name, often comes to his garden to snack on the strawberries he has grown. He too lives in a motor home. Health problems, he said, prevent him from working.

He maintains that he has the same right to keep a college garden as anyone else. And he is frustrated with those who complain.

“It just comes down to ignorance,” Bob said. “I’m a firm believer in karma. I think when people judge other people, nature will someday put them in a similar place.”