What Happened?

The garden was quite a success. We had many visitors (see video and photos) to the mobile garden for its stay on "Hippie Hill". The plants grew to more then three times their original size, overcoming their week root structures to reach for the sky.  Consistent watering and plenty of sunlight maximized the plants growth. The guest book was filled with poems, personal messages and an overall appreciation for the garden.

Garden Guestbook Quotes:

Breakdowns in Design:

There was indication that our written instructions were not explicit enough for some in the UCSD community. "Step 3: Fill up the watering buckets and shower your botanical friend." We received repeated complaints in the guest book or written on the garden. "Someone should fill the containers," and "there's no water in butckets." Additionally, there were reports that people were not indicating when they watered the plants, leading to over watering. Fotunatley, the communication breakdowns counteracted each other allowing the plants to thrive.

Alternate uses of the garden:

Tree stump treesAlthough the table aspect was never used as intended we set the mobile garden near available seating.  This allowed it to act more as an enhancer of the space it was placed in, rather then a specific location one might meet at.

Conclusions:

We had many visitors over the two week period, and for the most part, the community really respected the space.  IUnfortunatley the garden was vandalized, stealing plants, ripping down signs, and ripping out pages of the guestbook.The growth alone of the plants is a good evaluation of the capabilities of the UCSD student body to show concern and dedication to a community effort.