| When I first moved into McKinney from Bowman Hall in
the summer of 1995, I paused and looked out the glass enclosure that
joined the greenhouse to the Main building. As I looked at this
green space, I said to myself "This won't do" It took
time, persistence; and luck. These pictures are taken through the
glass and thus look a bit "off" but I hope they make the
point. When people come into the building through this enclosure
they KNOW they are in a biology department. The pond was a gift of the
class of 1998. It was put in by Jim Marsh, our Lab Manager. It was
pure coincidence that the President of the class was in my spring flora
class that year, or was it? To say the least, I took advantage of
the opportunity. We were then blessed with the gift of Dr. Richard Shrum.
What follows below is the process of forming this garden. |
|
| The most important step in starting a garden
is soil preparation. If possible, have your soil tested
by your local extension agent. That office can inform you
of what needs to be done in order to get the soil ready.
I did not do this. The soil was a very hard clay just
dumped in that area after construction of McKinney was
completed. The tiller used to turn this soil over was
larger than the common "garden variety" tiller. Tilling won't
completely do the job. You have to go in with
a shovel and break up the large clots of soil, dig out
the pesky grass, etc. You should also take time to remove
the rocks which came up with this tilling. I could see
after doing this work that the soil was in very poor
shape and needed organic matter real bad. Remember that
the organic matter in soil is an important part of what
makes soil able to grow plants. It provides nutrition,
aeration and encourages the presence of soil-forming
animals like earthworms. Earthworms are excellent soil
builders. |
 |
| I was fortunate to be able to buy compost from a
local farm. I had two truck-loads brought in. This was
the beginning of the amending of the soil. This is something which will work from the top down. As time goes on
the organic material, such as compost, mulch, and decomposing plant
material will gradually
become a part of the soil. Over time, the soil will be
able to better support plant growth. Further amending was done with Permatil,
Klaysoft,
Superphosphate,
Green Sand and
Ironite.
These provided better drainage, encouraged early root development, and
promoted plant vigor and resistance to insects and disease. |
 |
| The garden can be laid out with a hose. You
can then move it about anytime you want to see a
different pattern, or plan. The water feature, which was donated by the
class of 1998, limited the
creativity of planning. The location of the garden
between the hot brick of McKinney and the warmth
reflecting off the greenhouse made the site perhaps one "Hardiness zone"
lower in terms of minimum temperature tolerance in winter.. Once you
know where the grass will be placed, you can work the soil of the garden as best
you can. Soil preparation should never be taken lightly. I
am adding some of the soil treatments mentioned above, but I
did not add any kind of weed-preventing chemicals. Turning and
mixing manure, peat moss into the soil needs to be done in order for the
new plantings to get a good start. |
|
| I chose plants which (1) provided different evergreen
color, such as blue, yellow and green; (2) would represent
"specimen" plantings of interest and design; (3) would be
indicative of typical spring, summer and fall plantings known in our
local area; and (4) with thoughts of my students, and how I could use the
garden for teaching purposes. My wife Carolyn helped me with the
selection and design. Over the years of watching her design our
backyard plantings, I came to trust her judgment and advice. I
have been always willing to listen to the advice of others about
gardening. It is amazing what people know. |
 |
| I decided not to lay down a "weed block" material
before the plants were mulched in. Experience taught me this
presents problems later when you want to add more plantings and need
to cut through the material. I knew that there would be some
volunteer plants (weeds) coming up through the seasons. This was
not a problem to me. I just picked them all out of the mulch and
taught them to my students. It was great to have such
spontaneous plant species available for study in so convenient a
location. For a list of come of the garden weeds found, click
here. |
 |
| Here in this picture the garden is basically laid out: the soil treated;
plants planted; mulch applied and water added. I also added some
slow release fertilizer to initiate growth. It was decided to
put sod down for the grass, rather than to grow it from seed. Laying
sod is expensive, and there is a method to working with it. Also, you
need to water it constantly at first in order for it to form good
roots. Turkey manure was laid under the sod. We were
blessed with a kind turf specialist on our Landscaping crew, Kevin
Moore. He was very helpful in this regard. Also, Kevin Lam
of the College Landscaping crew has been a big help. |
|
| The water feature obviously needed attention. With
the volunteer help of Jennifer DeHouf, who was a big help to me with
the pond, we drained it, cleaned it up, and thinned out the
fish. I learned a lot about pond maintenance from Jenn. Everything I presumed to know was literally backwards
from what really had to be done with pond maintenance, including
filtering, the care of fish, and the addition of certain organisms to
help maintain the pond. I added many more plants, as this recent
picture shows. Caring for them is different because you are in there
with hip boots. |
 |
| This is the Shrum Memorial garden after I had completed it
in August of 2000. Mary Painter of Virginia Natives in Hume,
Virginia gave me some
good advice about how to plant around the immediate pond, as well as
up on the Waterfall. The Shrum family came on campus 14 June to
dedicate the pond. Dr. Shrum told of how most of the bricks used
to build Bridgewater College came from the Shrum Brick Supply company
in nearby Dayton. Thus, had it not been for the Shrums, there
would not have been a Bridgewater College! They made this claim
with tongue in cheek. Still, I must thank Dr. Shrum and
Bridgewater College for giving
me this opportunity to create the kind of beauty that I find to be
inordinately enriching, and yet at the same time honors the Shrum
family, and my students. See the listing of the
woody
and herbaceous land plants. Also,
click here for some additional views of the
garden as seen in Spring of 2004. |
 |
