Jim Sears designed the gardens around the Tripp Athletic Center in 1999 in consultation with Mark Carney of Facilities. Students in Professor Sears's Horticulture class installed most of the plants in spring, 2000 during class time as part of their lessons in soil preparation, planting and plant materials. Several students worked overtime to complete the installation and help Grounds personnel spread the mulch.
The goal of this design and planting was to provide a welcoming entranceway to this new exercise area as well as to add to the diversity of landscape plants on campus. Low maintenance beds were in order so I chose bayberry, inkberry holly, PJM rhododendron and grasses as the dominant plants in the outer entranceway. Trees included three shademaster locusts, ginkgo (gift from Jim Sears), shadblow, flowering crabapples (Gifts from Lloyd MacDonald). Many of the trees were planted to be viewed through the windows of the exercise area inside the Center.
Several other flowering trees are planned for the site when funds become available. Students of "Landscape and Garden" planted bulbs and additional pachysandra ground cover in fall, 2000. The walkway between the new and old buildings of the athletic facilities is shady and is planted with several varieties of azaleas and mountain laurels and winterberry holly. The pachysandra ground cover will fill in between these shrubs within a few years and provide a pleasant, cool place to enter the Tripp Athletic Center.
