Photos by JULIE MORRIS/Assistant Photo Editor Alpha Zeta, the honorary fraternity of the college of agriculture, rents out garden plots as a community service project. The plots are located on Samford Avenue.

Playing around in the dirt is what Jeanette and her husband Travis Havens like to do. 

And with the garden plots Alpha Zeta rents, the couple can play their hearts’ content.

“Travis comes from a farming family, and he likes to fiddle around in the dirt,” said Jeanette Havens, a graduate student. “I thought it’d be a good way to spend time together.”

The two have had their own garden since May, having heard about the plots from a fellow graduate student and hall director.

“Because we live on campus, we don’t have 
any yard, and it is against the rules to use the University property to garden,” said Havens, who lives at the Caroline Draughon Village.

Alpha Zeta, the honorary fraternity of the college of agriculture, originally began offering the plots, located across from the Facilities Division on Samford Avenue, in the early 1980s.

“It became extremely popular, and hundreds and hundreds of people were out gardening,” said George Young, former adviser and University of Illinois member of Alpha Zeta. 

“We had won four or five national service awards for this community service project,” said Young, a professor in the college of agriculture. “But it never has taken off like it did in the 80s.”

For $50, a 25 by 30 foot plot of land can be rented for the year. Young said that the plots are soil tested and fertilized before rented out and are available through December.

“In April, they plow (the land) down after it stops freezing,” Havens said. 
“And they put some fertilizer in it to begin with.

“They also provide water,” she said.

Water with great water pressure, Havens said with a smile. “You could have a really good water fight.”

The Havens have planted corn, tomatoes, radishes, squash, zucchini, basil, cucumbers and marigolds.

“We’ve made lots of friends by giving away our extra food,” Havens said. “It’s more of a hobby for us than a means of food.”

Another option for gardeners with a bountiful harvest is to donate the food to the East Alabama Food Bank like the Master Gardeners do.

This group of volunteers is trained by the local extension office with a 45-hour in-depth horticulture class covering “everything from growing lawns and herbs up to Japanese rhododendrons,” said Chuck Browne, Lee County Extension Agent and Master Gardener.

After completion of the class, Browne said the gardeners “agree to volunteer their time back to the community, such as landscaping for Habitat for Humanity or maintaining the ‘Welcome to Auburn’ signs.”

Master Gardener Helene Alexander said, “We found out that the Food Bank had a cold room for storage, and we were learning how to grow great vegetables.

“There are so many people who need vegetables and can’t afford good meals, so we started this garden to help feed them,”she said.

Alexander and her husband Milton decided to make the garden one of the Master Gardener’s community service projects about two years ago.

“The Food Bank also supplies food to daycares and the elderly,” Alexander said. “Food is coming in and out of there like crazy.”

Browne said that not only does the garden supply fresh vegetables to the food bank, but it acts as a “demonstration garden for people to come and look at.

“There are not many people now who grew up on a farm,” Browne said. 
“Many students come in and don’t know how to grow a proper garden.”

Young said Alpha Zeta gives people that chance. “It gives people who want to garden but don’t have a place to do it the opportunity,” Young said.