How we made our mobile garden

The base of the box is a recycled pallet; the sides built up to support the platform the planter boxes will sit on.  Two panels were hinged to both sides so they could folded inwards as a desk in the middle for group interactions.  The center console contains mini planter boxes with seedlings. Netting to protect plants from humans and other animals, and buckets for watering.  4"  caster wheels were the most difficult to install. We had to be extremely careful not to split the wood panels of the pallet as we screwed them in. Instructions for the plants care, explaining when and how any individual can water the plants, were laminated and attached to the outer panel. the other panel displayed a welcome sign and "last watered" sign where participants could write the time and date with whiteboard markers. A guest book and pen was attached by twine to one side allowed for documented notes of garden experiences.

Getting authorization was intense!  First we had to get a proposal on paper so that we could show our ideas in an easy to understand format.  We made sketches of our initial plan of a mobile garden, its intended use and effects on the space where it would be exibited.  After completing the proposal we gave a copy to Sue Pearson, head of the planning department.  Sue had one of her colleagues, Todd Pittman, meet with us after she saw our proposal.  Todd gave us all the information on who to contact in the different locations we planned on exhibiting the mobile garden.  He also gave us some advice on water usage, placement of the garden and other small details.   After Todd gave us his approval we had to e-mail Susan Smith (Muir College Provost), and Gabriel Wienhausen (Sixth College Provost).  Gabriel gave us permission to place the garden in Sixth college without hesitation.  Susan e-mailed us back with concerns about length of the intervention and removal as well.  In order to gain approval I had to contact the business manager and sign a contract.  Along with the contract I had to leave a $100 security deposit in the form of a check in case we didn't remove it after June 7th, 2007.  The approval process genuinely showed the bureaucracy that goes on at UCSD and the measures they take to keep full control over campus, including student art projects.

• wheels
• desk space
• stump seats
• guest book
• watering cans
• last watered sign

In the design of our garden we had to take many things into consideration during construction.  We had initially planned to make an entire bed full of dirt.  This was ditched in order to minimize wieght, and maximize portability.  By making individual pots we can exchange the in habitants of the garden when they get too big, or if the seasons don't fit the current plants in the garden.  We were also going to build the top so it could swing out and make a desk.  The design of this aspect was too intricate, so we opted to make it a desk that people could socialize at, instead of the singular person aspect that a desk makes.  The only issue that the table brought about was the question of why make it retractable, and not just put the pots on top of a permanent table.  This could be explained by the use of the garden not as necessarily the centerpiece which must be the main topic of the social space, but rather an object that initiates and activates a space as one of social capital gain.  The garden is a place to be, and once you are there you want to socialize, so the table allows this while not being the center of the space.

Social Gardening Project