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Show Monday, April 19, 2010 Page 5 AggieLife Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.aggietownsquare.com Sowing the seeds of a community Students lend a hand at community garden By TAM ROUNDS staff writer More than 50 faculty and students in the Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning (LAEP) program tackled weeds and a massive pile of compost at the Cache Community Garden in Hyde Park on Thursday. With shovels and rakes and tillers and bare hands, they cleaned and prepped the garden. Senior Nathan Felton spent most of the morning operating a tiller, breaking the ground so people can plant tomatoes next month. He said, "LAEP Week is a tradition. We celebrate our profession and do a service project. We like to see how we can use our manpower and do something good." The service day is an annual event, part of LAEP Week. The week is sponsored by USU's student chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). April is international Landscape Architecture month. The LAEP department head, Sean Michael, said, "Student chapters of ASLA are doing service projects like this all over the globe." He said, "Service projects in the past have typically been design and planning of landscapes such as community parks and nursing home grounds. These students have been striving for a more hands-on project. So the effort here is really apropos. And plans for the future include multiphase service projects to benefit the community garden." Michael said the new leadership of the ASLA student chapter is looking next to design and build a straw bale structure at the garden for a community gathering place. Michael said, "The agrarian history of this valley is really important to us all, but especially as the agricultural university of the state, in perhaps, the greenest valley in the state. This community garden, the largest in the state, is a great foothold in the valley but we know by demand that more are needed. And, kudos to St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in taking the initiative to allow this land to be used for a community garden." As the land-grant university of the state of Utah, USU strives to positively impact the communities of Utah. The effort at the community garden is only the latest in the projects generated by USU colleges and departments that achieve this. USU-Cache LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AND Environmental Planning (LAEP) students worked at the community garden on Thursday.The community garden offers the public a place to grow vegetables, fruit and flowers. It is the largest community garden in the state of Utah. TAM ROUNDS photo County Extension sponsors the community garden in conjunction with the Utah Conservation Corps, Americorps and St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic church. The community garden offers the public a place to grow vegetables, fruit and flowers. USU Extension Horticulture Agent Taun Beddes has managed much of the garden's planning and maintenance. He said, "We broke ground on the garden here three years ago, and we have had increasing numbers of participants each year. Last year the garden served 80 patrons." Gardeners range from students to retired couples to growing families to special groups. Beddes said, "The garden is perfect for people like students who don't have ground of their own to work. Vegetables grown in the garden are much cheaper than buying them and taste better too." Beddes praised the students' efforts. He said, "The work they accomplished was a phenomenal help to the Cache Community Garden. They completed more than we expected. I can't thank them enough." The service day is one part of LAEP Week. Felton said, "We have other activities including an awards banquet and a bowling tournament, students versus faculty." The faculty won last year so the students are looking for an upset. Michael said, "We beat them at disc golf too. Whatever it takes to beat the students." For more information about the community garden, call USU Extension, 752-6263. — tam.r@aggiemausu.edu Undergrad publishes poetry book By COURTNIE PACKER features editor JUNIOR JACOB THOMAS' collection of poems, "The Shades of Memory," was completed last November and became available for purchase in January. PETE P. SMITHSUTH photo CLARKSBURG Jacob Thomas used to think poetry was useless. He assumed poems were poor children's rhymes or elegies that make it on the cover of funeral programs. But after attending a poetry workshop in May 2009 at USU, Thomas discovered that poems were much more than that. "I found out I loved it. I loved poetry," Thomas said. "With my background in writing and writing stories just for fun, I was able to translate that into writing poetry. Little did I know that a few months later I would be a published author with a poetry book." The junior in English teaching had to attend the workshop for his major. It was a week-long course that lasted all day. Thomas said the class spent the days writing poems and reading them in front of one another. By doing so, he was able to get constant feedback and learn a few tricks of the trade. "That served as the basis for everything and it was just one week," he said. "It changed BRESLAW • STONELEIGH Logan's Premier Student CLARKSBURG BRESLAW STONELEIGH 677 EAST Goo NORTH 679 EAST 600 NORTH 675 EAST 600 NORTH For more information call Dada • (435) 755-8525 • Pager (435) 206-1926 • darladclark@pcu.net or go online at www.cbsapartments.com everything." After receiving a lot of positive feedback and feeling like his works were well-written, Thomas said he had the resources and wanted to be published. Thomas' collection of poems, "The Shades of Memory," was completed last November and became available for purchase in January. "The Shades of Memory" contains nearly 50 poems that explore life in hindsight. "I think everyone has those moments in life where they think, 'Holy cow, how did I get here?' or 'What are the events that led me to this place?" Thomas said. "Those kinds of poems, the ones that are deep-thinking, not necessarily sad or depressed but contemplative, are moments when you are thinking. That is why it is shades of memory: it is thinking and remembering." Thomas said the title came from the first poem in the book. He said he remembers sitting with his dad in an empty school gym. Thomas' dad leaned over and said, "Think of all the ghosts that are here." 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