Across from a practice field used by Mercer’s soccer teams and next to a shed for the university’s ROTC program, 17 raised garden beds lay in wait for the coming spring and an anticipated harvest of carrots, peppers and eggplant. While the Mercer University Botanical Society is still a seedling of a student organization, it has plans to reach its tendrils across Mercer and Macon.
“Our goal is just to really spread awareness for how fun and simple gardening can be,” co-President Cecilia Althen-Sumner ‘25 said. “It doesn’t have to be some complex thing and is open to everyone.”
The raised garden beds MUBS uses are remains from a long-finished Mercer School of Medicine project that took place more than a decade ago. In an agreement with the medical school, Althen-Sumner said that two boxes are left empty each semester while the rest of the roughly 3-foot-by-5-foot beds are utilized by the club.
Since its inception, the club has cleared the once-overgrown garden beds, converted one planter box into a compost bin and revamped the garden’s irrigation system. While their group chat is relatively large - about 160 members inhabit their GroupMe - there is a group of about 30 students who regularly come out to meetings and planting days, club leaders said.
Recently, the club hosted a Boy Scout troop that had a member complete his Eagle Scout project by helping MUBS with garden cleanup. Still, one project the club hopes to have completed this year is connecting its irrigation system to a nearby water hookup so the process can be more automated than it was in the past.
“Part of the dream is to have some environmental engineer senior or junior who wants to take on a little project for irrigation, but we have to snatch a few of them in order to make that happen,” Althen-Sumner mused. “We want to ingratiate ourselves to the rest of Mercer so, you know, everybody feels like they have a piece of themselves here.”
Mercer students are not the only people who work with the club, though. MUBS has partnered with Central High School, a local school just a few blocks from Mercer’s campus, Althen-Sumner ‘25 said.
“We invite them to come down and work and watch what we do,” she said. “Just because we live in a suburban-urban area, that doesn’t negate the ability to reach out and to do things like gardening and growing your own food.”
Food deserts in Macon have been well-documented, but micro farming has been touted as a sustainable and space-conscious alternative that can deliver fresh produce to areas otherwise devoid of affordable and healthy food options.
Additionally, the club has worked with the Georgia Native Plant Society, whose Fringed Campion chapter is led by Carol Bokros. Bokros is the director of pre-health professions at Mercer and can often be seen culling invasive species around Macon. Later this year, a speaker connected to the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historic Park will present to the club on the "spirituality" of gardening, Althen-Sumner said.
Yet, there have been tense moments for the club. A Mercer professor came by the garden and laid cardboard and soil down in a box to start their own plot in spring 2024. The problem? Sprouts were already starting to pop up in that box from a planting day MUBS hosted earlier that semester.
“We’re not against other organizations, departments or even, you know, faculty getting involved down here,” Althen-Sumner said. “But, you know, if people want to do stuff, they should probably let us know before they do.”
MUBS would not say who the professor was, but they said after Mercer stepped in, there have been no more such incidents for the club that is trying to grow its presence on campus.
Sprouting up
MUBS was first started in fall 2023 when Jonah Slovensky ‘26 came to the Student Government Association for a “seed money” grant for the club’s anticipated start-up costs -- and for money to spend on seeds MUBS wanted to cultivate. The initial request was granted, giving the club enough money for some of what they needed to begin working on the garden. However, SGA prohibits organizations from using its grant money for food, and a roughly 20-minute conversation broke out at the meeting about whether or not seeds and seedlings constituted food. In the end, the “nays” outnumbered the “yeas” and MUBS had to find a way to buy seeds and seedlings for its newfound acreage.
So far, members have shouldered that cost with some going so far as to begin growing future plants in their dorms during the winter before transplanting the seedlings when the weather is right. There are limits to what can be grown - no illicit plants, Althen-Sumner cautioned - but most, if not all, other ideas are accepted. In a similar vein to the SGA’s rule against funding seeds, none of MUBS’ crops can be donated, the co-presidents said, and anybody who would like to eat the food grown on campus has to sign a waiver beforehand.
However, this has not deterred students from partaking in the meal, and Hahn has even held onto a stash of herbs for dorm-cooked meals that need a little more flavor. “I have some [oregano] in my room that’s dried, and I’ve definitely eaten from the garden, yeah,” Hahn said.
Althen-Sumner spent “over 500 hours” in the garden last summer at the behest of one of the club’s founders, Carlee Schultz ‘25, which she said reignited her love for “getting my hands in the dirt.” During those 500 hours, she weeded and prepared the boxes for the fall harvest, which she said included a few successful crops. Among them, the wheat has had some staying power in the area as about a dozen of its amber stalks have rooted themselves in the ground around the garden and now wave in the spring wind.
For co-President Jacob Hahn ‘27, MUBS allows him to continue the activity his parents taught him an appreciation for as a child. “I feel really connected with my parents when I show interest in a hobby that they’ve put so much and effort into,” he said.
Gabriel Kopp '26 is majoring in Journalism and Law and Public Policy at Mercer University. He has written for The Cluster since he started at Mercer, and currently works as co-Editor-in-Chief. When he isn't studying, he enjoys going for runs and reading The New York Times or the AJC while sipping coffee.
