Roble Organic Teaching Garden

The Roble Organic Teaching Garden, flanking Roble’s east side, is a place where students can learn about sustainable agriculture, experiment with organic gardening, and pull up an Adirondack chair and just relax.

The garden, which opened in fall 2017, features 10 raised beds and myriad surrounding spots for plants. The crops vary throughout the year; throughout the garden’s inaugural year, a rotating variety of fruits, vegetables, and herbs have been grown.

The garden, one of the largest at a Stanford dorm, was funded and built by Stanford’s Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE). It is maintained by Michael Meehan, R&DE’s garden manager, with help from a Roble student who works as a garden intern and with help from an array of interested Roble students who volunteer. 

The garden has become a popular spot for Roble students to gather both formally and informally. The garden has hosted food tastings, gardening tutorials, and meetings of a variety of groups. Day in and day out, it also has become a spot where students gather, at a picnic table or chairs, to study or just read.