If you’ve visited Brenau’s garden, you’ve probably seen Aisa Goforth.
Each week, the senior interior design major can be found hunched over, hands in the dirt, tending to the tomatoes, okra, strawberries and other blossoming plants within the fenced space.
“It’s a lot of fun to watch something grow, like stick a tiny seed in the ground and then nurture it and take care of it until you’ve got a whole tomato plant,” Goforth said. “And now you can put tomatoes in your sandwiches. It’s a lot of fun to be a part of that process.”
As the president of the Brenau University Garden Society, also known as BUGS, Goforth works with the Master Gardeners to keep the small patch of vegetation thriving. When the pandemic hit in 2020, she said the membership drastically dropped, leaving herself to regularly care for the garden.
“I think I kind of felt some sort of responsibility toward it, but at the same time, I just really enjoyed gardening and learning from the Master Gardeners,” she said.
Last year, Goforth said the Hall County Master Gardeners stepped up to convert Brenau’s garden into a food production facility for local charities.
“Over that first summer of COVID, one of the Master Gardeners thought, ‘Well, there’s not students here, but who are still here are the homeless shelters and food banks. They’re still here and they need food,’” Goforth recounted. “So, we’ve been catering to them recently.”
In October 2021, Kevin Mace, current club advisor, Goforth and Rudi Kiefer, past advisor, honored the Master Gardeners for their eight years of instruction and learning with a commemorative plaque on the garden’s gates.
When Goforth graduates this December, she will hand BUGS president reins off to another student and also leave her role as the graphic design intern for Brenau’s communication department. While she hopes to get a job as a commercial or health care designer, the senior said she will keep her options open.
“We (Brenau’s interior design department) do a lot of research first before getting into the design,” Goforth said. “I really enjoy that because it’s not like I’m just doing it because it looks nice. I’m doing it because it’s been tested and researched, and it works. I guess it makes me feel good about what I’m doing.”
