Pangea Garden

Located just behind the dorms, the Pangea Garden is the AUC community’s own personal slice of green within the often drab greyness of Amsterdam Science Park. Over the past few years, our Head of Gardening has worked tirelessly to transform this tiny strip of land into a productive and sustainable garden, open to all of the AUC community. With a small seating area, vegetable plots, a compost, and fruit trees, the garden provides the community with fresh produce, a way to dispose of food waste in a sustainable way, and a place to hang out and detox from the otherwise concrete world of Science Park. This Autumn (call it Fall if you must), we have harvested pumpkins, squash, courgettes and potatoes, all grown and taken from our back garden. While a lot of what we grow is collected by the Gardening Team for use in Down to Earth Dinners and future garden projects, we invite all to explore the space and take from it that which is ready for harvest. By sharing our home-grown produce we want to encourage the use of locally sourced, seasonal ingredients and show that these foods have a place on all of our dinner tables.

We want the garden to be a space for all, but it is important that we use it in a way that safeguards nature and preserves the hard work done by our Head of Gardening and the Gardening Team. One of the key aspects of the garden is the compost. Located to the left of the garden’s vegetable plots, the compost bin exists to encourage members of the community to dispose of their food waste in a way that is not only more sustainable, but helps us maintain soil diversity to keep the garden healthy and thriving. However, to make sure that these goals are met, it is important we all know what can and cannot be composted! Food waste of course makes up the majority of the garden’s compost biomass, but not all food waste is welcome… meat and products high in salt content should be avoided. Meat can cause rodent infestations and attract pests, while products with high salt content interfere with the composting process, so make sure to be mindful when sorting your food waste! In addition to this, all plastics, metals, and other non-organic materials should be removed from compost material. While we try to remove as much as we can, we need everyone to help out to prevent pieces sneaking in and harming the ecosystem.

If you want to get involved in maintaining and expanding our garden you can get in contact with us via Instagram @pangea_auc or come on down to the garden on Mondays at 15.00 to get your hands dirty as part of the Gardening Team.

Peace, love, and sustainability,

John O’Halloran, Secretary

Pangea