With little more than dirt, lumber and a little elbow grease, college students can manage to feed themselves and make fewer excursions to Safeway by planting simple, functional garden beds.
Before bringing a little more green to Eugene, tenants should be aware of landlord limitations. No tenant should attempt to modify any of the grounds around their houses and  apartments without consulting their respective proprietors.
But if they get the green thumbs-up, these easy steps can help make quaint, personal vegetable gardens a reality for renters all over town.
1. Find a Location
An ideal location for a late-summer mini garden is one with partial sunlight.
Hotter weather plants grow better in full sunlight, but fall and winter crops are heartier and can grow in lower light.
The garden should be located away from concentrations of heavy foot traffic and places where animals may go snooping around.
University junior Jesse Gehrke, an urban gardening enthusiast who took a seminar on school gardening during Zero Week, just moved into his first house with four other roommates.
He plans to take advantage of what little vacant backyard space he has by planting two eight-foot beds.
“Any money I can save by growing the vegetables I regularly eat is money in the bank,” Gehrke said. “And, at the same time, I get to beautify some space that would otherwise just be dead grass.”
2. Build Beds
Raised beds are very simple to construct, and materials can be found at any medium-sized hardware store or lumber yard.
The size of beds should be determined upon the amount of available space, whether that is six, eight or ten feet in length.
To make easily manageable rectangular beds, cut the two width sections at two-thirds of the length.
If boring holes, sinking screws and making dovetail joints in two-by-sixes sounds like an impossible task, many hardware stores sell sets of four L-braces, into which the ends of the lumber can be inserted and secured.
When choosing lumber, select wood that has natural rot-resistant properties, such as yellow cedar.
3. Amend Soil
Depending on the type of plants slated for growth, the soil should be manipulated with additives, such as wood chips, grass clippings, vermiculite, perlite, rock phosphate and green sand, to achieve differing degrees of soil nitrogen content, permeability and acidity.
Soil sold by gardening and home improvement stores are usually of high quality and need little amending.
4. Choose Plants
Eugene boasts many resources where novice gardeners can pick up starts and receive free agricultural advice.
GrassRoots Garden on Coburg Road supplies its workers with complimentary starts in return for volunteer hours.
Harper Keeler, interim director of the University Department of Landscape Architecture’s Urban
Farm, said part of the farm’s purpose is to offer advice to the surrounding community and educate students who have questions about what to plant and when
“If (students) come here with some questions, we will be glad to help them,” Keeler said. “We can’t really offer any starts right now, but we can demonstrate planting and weeding techniques to those who show up and help us out.”
Keeler said the ideal plant for fall and winter is collard greens because of their heartiness, frost resistance and the sheer volume of produce that can be harvested from only a few starts.
“Anything from the mustard-cabbage family will hold up well during colder weather,” Keeler said. “To get the most bang for your buck, though, plant collards, and you will have more vegetables than you know what to do with.”
5. Plant Starts
Plant spacing and watering is all determined by what is planted.
Consult a farmer’s almanac for further information, such as the Old Farmer’s Almanac online at www.almanac.com/gardening.
[email protected]
 
Hearty Fall and Winter crops

• Broccoli
  This veggie grows best in cool weather at an average daily temperature between 64 and 73 degrees Fahrenheit.
  It can easily grow through late October, and is high in Vitamins C, K and A, as well as in dietary fiber.
• Potatoes
  This dietary staple is also easy to grow and can survive well into the winter if left in the ground.
  Potatoes are unique because they are not planted from seeds but from pieces of other potatoes called “seed potatoes.”
  If potatoes are planted in mid-August to early September, expect to harvest them in a little over 10 weeks.
  Plants will grow healthiest in soils high in sulfur.
• Beets
  Fast-growing and preferring cool, moist weather, beets do especially well in humus-rich soil with a neutral pH.
  Phosphorus and potassium are essential to a fruitful beet yield, which should be expected 45 to 65 days after planting.

• Carrots
  This easy-to-grow root crop will make strides in almost any type of soil and will be ready to harvest in two to three months after germination.
  Carrots keep well in the ground, so there is no rush to harvest them after the first hard frost.
  During particularly cold winters, they should be picked before the ground freezes.

• Spinach
  High in Vitamin A and essential minerals, this delicious leafy plant is mostly water and can be steamed to a fraction of its fresh volume.
  Spinach plants have shallow roots and need ample watering to do well in block planting.
  If planted in late fall and not exposed to a harsh winter, the crop will survive and bear fruit in early spring.