| Bastyr University » Give to Bastyr » Bastyr Magazine » Spring 2005 | November 20, 2009 |
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Spring 2005: Vol 2, Number 2
Cultivating HealthBastyr’s medicinal herb garden gives everyone a chance to stop and smell the echinacea.The story goes that a young man considering enrolling at Bastyr, flew from the East Coast to Bastyr to check out the school and meet with admissions advisors. After parking, he noticed Bastyr’s inviting herb garden and couldn’t resist stopping off to admire its bounty. Seating himself in the nearby gazebo he stared out at the lush landscape. Two hours later, without leaving the sanctuary of the gazebo or setting foot inside the school building, he’d decided that Bastyr was definitely the place for him. Such is the power of the Bastyr Herb Garden. One of the Pacific Northwest’s finest examples of an organic, fully sustainable, medicinal herb garden, this unique oasis of botanicals was originally created in 1997 with 65 species of herbs. It now includes over 250 species of plants and continues to expand. With its bounty used all year long by natural sciences students and the university’s vegetarian cafeteria, the garden produces a colorful abundance of Western and traditional Chinese medicinal plants, vegetables, fruits, grains and culinary herbs. According to garden supervisor Andrea Livingston, “The garden is a living, hands-on learning tool. Students learn how to grow, harvest and interact with the plants. They can follow the entire life-cycle of a food, from planting the seeds to eating the produce.” While the garden falls under the umbrella of Bastyr’s botanical medicine department, Shiela Kingsbury, ND, the department’s acting chair, explains that students from across the natural sciences programs utilize it. “All of the herbal science courses include labs that teach harvesting and utilizing herbs from the garden,” she says. “Students of acupuncture and Oriental medicine study the herbs in our traditional Chinese medicine beds, while university researchers utilize freshly grown plants for their scientific studies. The nutrition beds are harvested and used by the nutrition students in their food labs.” Even students of naturopathic medicine get up-close-and-personal with the therapeutic plants they’ll someday use in their practices. In their botanical medicine dispensary course, they make medicines themselves—everything from tinctures, to poultices and salves—out of the university-grown botanicals. Use of the garden, however, isn’t limited to students. The cafeteria incorporates fresh vegetables and herbs into its daily meals . And when the garden bounty is extra large, the produce is collected and sold to students and staff in order to raise money for the garden’s upkeep. As Dr. Kingsbury says, “The list of garden uses just goes on and on.” During peak seasons (spring and summer), a team of 10—mostly work-study students along with periodic volunteers—tends the garden under the supervision of Livingston. Livingston holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies with a focus on sustainable agriculture. “Basically,” she says, “I’ve studied gardening practices that are good for the earth, that don’t deplete soil but contribute to it.” Livingston’s pride in Bastyr’s garden is as apparent as a parent’s pride in a growing child. “We’ve recently been able to expand the garden a bit, “she says. “We have a new little greenhouse for botany classes and plant experiments, we’ve added raised garden beds to help enclose the garden and create some seeding areas, and we’ve built short rock walls topped with flagstones that visitors can use for sitting on and enjoying the view.” Because the garden is a living, organic thing, some observers swear it has its own unique personality. “Actually, I tend to think that it reflects the personalities and energies of those who work it,” says Livingston. “So many people have put so much hard work, time and love into that garden. They’ve built and planned things, and different people have created their own little sections in the garden. It’s a living collection of people’s ideas and creativity.” 
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