Davis community members, students come to plant sales to buy California native plants

Agaves, aloes, succulents, California Fusil, Buckwheat, California Lilac, Manzanitas, Salvias — all can be found at the Arboretum and Public Garden Plant Sales.

Community members and students attend these events at the Arboretum Teaching Nursery, on Garrod Drive, to purchase plants grown and sold as a fundraiser for the Arboretum and Public Garden. With three in the fall and four in the spring, anywhere between 1,000-1,500+ customers will attend the events. These sales are put on by the Arboretum and Public Garden staff, volunteers and Learning by Leading students, according to UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden Assistant Director Carmia Feldman.

“We put on the sales because they are our biggest outreach and community engagement opportunities of the year to educate people on regionally appropriate gardening and [to] sell the California natives, Arboretum All-Stars and other plants that will help them be successful in creating gardens that need less water, less fertilizers and pesticides and provide [a] habitat to important native pollinators and other wildlife,” Feldman said.

According to Nursery Manager for the Arboretum and Public Garden Taylor Lewis, the sales are well trafficked because the plants sold at the events cannot usually be found at retail stores. People line up beginning at 7:30 a.m. and anywhere from 200-300 walk in the door right away.

At the sales, over 600 taxa or plant varieties are available for purchase, such as various kinds of trees, vines, bulbs and grasses. According to Lewis, the sales offer plants for all soil and sun types.

“I focus specifically on drought tolerant, pollinator, beneficial insect attracting plants from the mediterranean climates of the world,” Lewis said. “California natives make up 30-35% of my overall stock. I grow plants that are hardy in our area, since I don’t like to grow plant that don’t do well here.”

The price of the plants depends on how easy they are to grow. Plants that take years to be ready for retail cost more, according to Lewis. Most common, one-gallon plants are sold for $12.

According to Feldman, the plant sales are the biggest fundraising events of the year for the Arboretum and Public Garden, with all proceeds going directly toward supporting the educational and environmental stewardship programs.

“It is a fundraiser to support a lot of the programs for the public,” said Outreach and Leadership Program Manager Melissa Cruz Hernandez. “A lot of the educational programing that we do is for free. We raise funds to support our organization.”

These events attract many members from the community, such as homeowners, landscape and garden professionals, restoration professionals, campus affiliates and more.  

“We have many outreach partners at the sales and often have children’s activities, live music [from local musicians], and educational demonstrations,” Feldman said.

Professionals and expert graduate students are brought into the sales to get advice about the best types of plants for specific yards with different soils or amounts of shade.

“We plan the events in a way that is fun and engaging for the community and also makes people want to come again,” Cruz Hernandez said.

Community volunteers and students make up most of the workforce that puts on the plant sales. According to Lewis, there is a very small number of paid staff that work for the nurseries. Four volunteer teams work every week to grow and take care of the plants.

“Volunteer work is a crucial piece of what we do,” Lewis said. “Students who are interested in how to grow plants and manage a nursery have a team of them who are here every week.”

Students who want to get involved with the plant sales and the public garden can take part in any of the 12 relevant internships offered. In the Nursery and Propagation Internship, students learn how to propagate the plants that are sold at the sales.

“Not only are the [plant sale] days really fun and engaging, the behind the scenes that allow the sales to happen is also very engaging in that we have community volunteers and students working side by side, making sure we have those plants readily available,” Cruz Hernandez said.

The Fall 2019 plant sale dates are Sept. 28, Oct. 12 and Nov. 2, all from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“We invite everyone to get involved in the plant sales,” Feldman said.

Written by: Margo Rosenbaum — features@theaggie.org

Several student groups come together to promote wellness

Throughout May, many mental health advocacy groups stood in solidarity to support Mental Health Awareness Month (MHAM). These groups aim to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health by encouraging students to join the conversation and be more receptive towards recognizing the importance of taking care of themselves.

The different themed events, such as “Mental Health and College,” which focused on raising awareness about the stresses that accompany college, emphasize what can cause mental health issues and how to find the correct treatment for the particular situation. Fun activities, like “Adopt a Pet Rock,” provided a low-stress environment for students to decorate their own rocks with various messages of positivity and support alongside friends, while also highlighting the numerous ways students can keep their mental health strong and what options are available in times of stress.

One of the groups affiliated with MHAM, Each Aggie Matters, is responsible for placing green ribbons decorated with myths and facts about mental health on the trees surrounding the Memorial Union.

As part of Each Aggie Matters, the executive board of the Student Mental Health Coalition (SMHC), led by fourth-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major co-chair Shradha Shah, aims to unite some of the advocacy groups on campus with the mutual goal of bringing mental health issues to light. Shah is in full support of “advising campus leadership, reducing stigma[s] and informing students to allow for greater collaboration and resource transparency,” echoing the larger mission the coalition hopes to achieve.

The road doesn’t stop at increasing the resources available. Shah and her members also take on the task of “representing student mental health interests to all agencies, such as the Student Health and Counseling Services,” which means keeping in close contact with the support outlets available to students to ensure the best service possible is given to those in need.

Ty Miles, a fifth-year linguistics major and president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), spoke about the resources his organization provides to students and the help he and his members make available.

“We offer free mental health first aid training twice a quarter that teaches students how to recognize mental health conditions and the appropriate ways to respond until professional help can be sought,” Miles said. “It also helps students develop the care and compassion necessary in these situations.”

Miles also highlighted various presentations open to students that showcase the reality of living with mental health conditions.

“We recently had a student guest presenter at a meeting talk about her experience with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder,” Miles said. “This gives students a chance to see what some mental health conditions look like and to learn more about how to address these conditions with others.”

As someone who has struggled with mental health issues in the past, Miles understands how the rigors of college can weigh on students, especially those who feel like UC Davis demands higher expectations than they are capable of handling.

“I think one of the largest factors of mental health issues in students here at Davis is that, because they are in a research university with a good reputation, they feel so much pressure,” Miles said. “Students want to succeed and sometimes overachieve. Many studies show that people ages 17 to 24 are most likely to experience mental health issues, which falls right in line with college students.”

With the help of organizations like NAMI, SMHC and many more, students struggling with mental health, or who may know of someone in need of help, have multiple resources providing aid. Breaking the stigma starts with students looking out for one another and extending a helping hand wherever possible.

Written by: VINCENT SANCHEZ – features@theaggie.org

Showcasing original choreography and supporting a helpful cause

The Elite Dance Company hosted its first annual spring concert on May 19 in the Della Davidson Performance Studio. From starting with only five members a few years ago to featuring a healthy number of members eager to show off their own choreography, the organization has seen both growth and diversification throughout the years. Students witnessed various types of dance routines including jazz, hip hop and ballet, among other forms featured.

Rhea Kerawala, a third-year genetics and genomics major and current treasurer of Elite Dance Company, spoke about the organization and what some of the main goals are for this year.

“We’re built like a performance team,” Kerawala said. “We incorporate a lot of different styles into our routines. Our main goal is to have an organization where people can come together and build a community of people that enjoy dancing.”

Starting with the organization as a freshman, Kerawala has experienced the growth in members from year to year. She acknowledged that this has not always been the case, since some years had more members than others, but explained how this came about.

“We used to be a pretty big organization,” Kerawala said. “Around the time that other current officers, like Andrea [Varela] and Alice [Argueta-Ramos], took over, we had a lot of members starting to graduate or move on to bigger things. We’ve really been working on building our members back up to where it used to be. We have 18 members currently, so we’re starting to get there.”

The decision to make this event the first one for Elite Dance Company was due to the officers wanting to bring back an old tradition.

“Elite Dance Company used to have a big spring event, but that was before any of us were involved,” Kerawala said. “We really wanted to bring that legacy back. Since our freshmen year, we’ve really been trying to make this event happen. Now, we have the financial resources available and the members to make this happen.”

When discussing the spring concert, Kerawala emphasized the dedication and commitment that the performers have shown in creating their routines.

“Primarily, we will be showcasing original works by different dancers,” Kerawala said. “Some of the dancers are officers, others are just members and some are even freshmen that have choreographed their own performance. We also plan on having some guest performances from other dance organizations.”

In addition to showing various dance performances, the event is also intended to shed light upon another organization that Elite Dance Company is proud to raise awareness of.

“While it’s a pretty big deal for us to put on such a big event given our small numbers, we also want to promote our partner organization called PAN’DA [Postpartum Anxiety N’ Depression Advocates]” Kerawala said. “They support so many women going through postpartum depression, so we’re having one of their members speak at our event. Any donations will go toward their cause.”

Andrea Varela, a fourth-year theater and dance major and current co-artistic director, shared her excitement about being able to finally put on an event for her organization.

“It’s really a culmination of all the projects that our members have created,” Varela said. “It’s now our time for us to show everyone what we have to bring and also for the members to have fun. It’s a great way for us all to end the year strong.”

Varela shared information about how Fall and Winter Quarter have played a part in making the spring concert happen.

“When we start Fall quarter, we have our recruitment process,” Varela said. “We do some collaborative work as well. In Winter quarter, we always work with other dance companies and perform in their showcase events. It really depends on what we get invited to and mostly helping our team to get ready for the end of the year show.”

Like Karawala, Varela also started as a freshman and became the co-artistic director soon after that. She explained how this position has allowed her to mentor other dancers that are being groomed to take over the role.

“We thought that, for our last year, we should give this position to someone else while we’re still in charge behind the scenes to see if they need our help,” Varela said. “So we really take care of a lot the backseat work for the showcase since this is our first one. It’s a lot of applying for grants and finding other people that can help us find the proper venue.”

Holding a leadership position has allowed Varela to see not only how she has grown, but also how she impacts the other members and the many more that continue to join year to year.

“I’ve grown so much from being first a member to now understanding what being a leader truly is like,” Varela said. “When you start off leading five people, then it becomes ten, and then twenty, it can be difficult to handle, but over time you get better with communication and working with so many different types of people. We always understand that school comes first, so we try and make it a fun environment with the least amount of stress possible.”

Varela also commented on how the organization has been built from the ground up, starting with five members that had to figure out the proper ways to handle recruitment and how to advertise themselves to reach a wider audience. She finds great pride in knowing that her and her fellow officers have paved a path for new officers to take up leadership roles and continue where they have left off.

Through the planning of the different performances set for the event, Varela hoped to show that her organization is open to any and all new routines and genres that people are interested in.

“All of our members have different styles they bring to the table,” Varela said. “We’re not just contemporary jazz or things like that. If you can do hip hop or something else, we want to learn and help build that routine. We want new members to help us and teach us about what it is they have in store.”

Written by: VINCENT SANCHEZ –– features@theaggie.org