Abel Rodriguez
Contributing Writer & Photographer
As winter approaches the days get shorter, temperatures get lower and the plants begin to die. However, Dominican University’s greenhouse is keeping a bit of green alive this winter.
Located in the Magnus Arts Center, it’s not an easy place to find. Visitors have to navigate a labyrinth to find the entrance into the greenhouse. After traversing the McGreal Archives and having a chat with Sister Janet Welsh, OP, you reach a set of white doors. Go through them and you reach Dominican’s winter oasis. After stepping inside you’re blasted with a wave of moisture, but it’s a nice contrast compared to frigid morning winds. Instantly your nose fills with a faith mossy scent that lingers but goes mostly unnoticed. After taking a few steps you pass a second doorway and finally you see the lush tomato planets that line almost the entirety of the back window and rows of lettuce elevated by wooden planks from the gutter. There’s a roar from the fans but it dies out with the sound of the running water.
Commissioned in the 1950s by Sister Hilaire OP the greenhouse gave biology and botany students at the university a hands-on approach learning experience. After the death of Sister Hilaire in 1986 Sister Jeanne Crapo OP oversaw the greenhouse.
As years passed, the greenhouse use declined, eventually it “became a random place for people’s house plants,” said Sustainably Coordinator Cathy Nichin. It was not well maintained and was overrun by “plants 7 feet high,” she added.
In 2017, the greenhouse was revived. Nutrition and Dietetics student Kalelys González, along with the biology and nursing departments, transformed the greenhouse into a hydroponic system that is more efficient than traditional soil-based methods.
Through the new system the plants are hydrated with nutrient rich water and “by trapping heat and sunlight, the greenhouse keeps ideal temperatures and moisture for plants to grow” said Sustain DU President Emily Sobo.
According to Nichin, the nursery grows lettuce and tomatoes that get used in the school’s cafeteria or the Recipe Box Cafe.
Sobo said she hopes to seem more use of the greenhouse in the future. The goal is to “provide Dominican University with a sustainable source of food that is local.” She also hopes that they contribute to local farmers markets this coming year.
Groups such as Sustain DU have brought the greenhouse back to life. There is no class associated with the greenhouse–yet. First year environmental science student Mia Berrios said, “Hopefully in the future there is an ecology course that works with the greenhouse. It would cool to get first-hand information and knowledge on plant growth.”
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