Written by: Corey Verkouteren (csv002@marietta.edu)
Long-time staff of Marietta College might remember a decade ago when the college was full of half dead shrubs and the grounds filled with weeds, but today our campus is bright and open. Over the past decade, the Grounds Department has worked diligently to bring the campus into the modern age, for safety and aesthetics. Groundskeepers Cody Castle and Dwight Alsbach, who is credited with heading the renovations, brought us through their journey of transforming campus.
Their project began with removing all the outdated and dead plants along the library bank.
Beforehand, this area was all grass and, as Mr. Alsbach put it, “the biggest weed magnet you’ve ever seen in your life.”
The Grounds Department hand dug the whole bank, put mulch and stones down, and planted some early greenery to get it to the state we see it today.
Another big change the Grounds Department pulled off was replacing all the giant shrubs around campus. These boxwood shrubs came onto campus around the 1960s and were largely dead due to challenging maintenance from their size. These shrubs also posed a safety risk because they created blind spots on campus that could be hid in.
Of course, the scale of changes that were being made caused some pushback initially. Many people valued the history of the college and wanted to maintain it. Today, though, we can still see history in the large trees around campus, some of which are over a century old. These trees pose some issues due to their branches falling off, but the Grounds Department keeps a close eye on them and has troublesome branches removed before any damage is caused.
Recently, the Grounds Department has worked on becoming more efficient and thoughtful. Instead of buying fully-grown plants, which must be replaced, they’ve grown some plants such as the black bamboo over the past three-to-six years and kept them alive in their shop. This allows for a wider variety of plants to be available, and for the plants to be more mature.
Looking back on their work, Castle and Alsbach shared some fond memories. From faculty watching them replant the whole library bank garden on lunch breaks, to alumni complimenting the campus when they come visit. Castle, Alsbach, and the other six employees working under the Grounds Department work diligently to continually improve the campus through cleanup, colorful gardens, and so much more.
Edited by: Zachary Worstell (zdw001@marietta.edu)
