Grow Lab Meadow

The Grow Lab is a campus garden that provides students with the opportunity for experiential learning about agriculture and ecology in East Tennessee. Alongside our raised bed and traditional gardening methods, the Grow Lab features a Pollinator Meadow, a no-mow zone meant to provide food and habitat for the many native pollinators and wildlife species that make growing food possible. The Meadow contains a native fruit tree orchard, a native plant hillside, a rain garden, many pollinator habitats (which we call "bugalows"), student project sections, a pumpkin patch, and of course, our Big Orange Checkerboard Garden. This Chronolog captures the change in the Pollinator Meadow throughout the seasons, as native plants sprout, grow, bloom, and go dormant.