Transformation Garden creates learning, research and outreach opportunities

By Auburn Alumni Association

Just beyond the south end of campus lies the Old Rotation, the historic one-acre plot of row crops that has been a continuous research experiment at Auburn since 1896. Surrounded by the hustle and bustle of contemporary college life, this plot melds the old with the new, connecting the past and present to the future.

It’s also home to the College of Agriculture’s Transformation Garden, a 16-acre tract that will soon become the university’s largest and most distinctive classroom. This space will include state-of-the-art features like the recently established “vertical farms”—shipping containers transformed into hydroponic growing stations—that will exist side by side with old-school elements like the Old Rotation and an existing vegetable gardening site.

This juxtaposition is by design, not default, and according to Desmond Layne, head of Auburn’s Department of Horticulture, is inspired by the university’s land-grant mission.

Auburn has served communities and the agricultural industry in the state through research, outreach and teaching programs for 150 years, and today remains Alabama’s oldest land-grant institution. The Transformation Garden will carry that tradition forward and create new, unique experiences for
the entire Auburn Family.

“Imagine a place where students from a variety of majors, faculty and community members can get their hands dirty and experience the outdoors in a way they never have before—where their eyes are opened and they learn to think about plants, the environment and our food system completely differently. The Transformation Garden will be that place,” Layne said.

Promoting learning and research experiences in disciplines from biology and engineering to history and business, the garden’s spaces are both a classroom and a lab space.

Developing this extensive outdoor learning and engagement site is no small task, and work will roll out in phases beginning this year.

Among the garden’s priorities are research, education and outreach on topics like food systems, access to local food, sustainability and food security. Students and faculty will also grow produce for Auburn’s Campus Dining program, the Hotel at Auburn University and the new Tony and Libba Rane Culinary Science Center’s rooftop garden.

The Transformation Garden will be a permanent fixture on campus and will join other green spaces with pedestrian access like the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, the Jay and Susie Gogue Performing Arts Center, the Donald E. Davis Arboretum, the Garden of Memory and the president’s estate.

“The Auburn Family has an opportunity to help the next generation understand aspects of our food system, the benefits of plants in our environment and so much more. That’s a really powerful thing.”

“This beautiful space will draw people to it whether they are studying, researching, taking an afternoon walk, enjoying the natural environment or visiting campus on the weekend,” Layne said. “I see this becoming a destination that will offer so much to the community.”

With the support of donors, the Transformation Garden will include a children’s garden, pollinator garden, medicinal garden, landscape construction work yard, vegetable teaching garden, invasive plant garden, shade garden and lath house, rain garden, composting facility, teaching orchard, trial garden and many others.

“Philanthropy is absolutely vital to our project—it won’t happen without it. But I love that,” Layne said. “Because the Auburn Family has an opportunity to help the next generation understand aspects of our food system, the benefits of plants in our environment and so much more. That’s a really powerful thing.”

Learn more about Auburn’s new Transformation Garden