Regulars to the expansive botanical landscape can always see someone working in the garden — planting, watering, edging, weeding and maintaining the foliage.
This visual reminder of the care put into fostering the growth of the flora inside the garden is what sets the site apart from other hotspots on MSU’s campus, botanical technician Peter Murray said.
“It’s a little bit of something for everyone,” he said.
Murray and several MSU students from an array of majors spend six to seven hours a day — rain or shine — ensuring the health and aesthetics of the garden.
This means caring for the garden’s wide range of plant life — everything from pineapple trees to a small plant with touch-sensitive leaves.
While the perennial plants only need watering, edging and weeding, annual vegetation requires new planting and designing each year.
Designing the flower beds is a job Murray used to execute; however, in recent years he decided to pass this duty on to students such as professional writing senior Olivia Monforton.
“He wants us to express ourselves,” Monforton said. “We pretty much have creative control over (the design).”
With the assistance of another student worker, Monforton sketched a rainbow-patterned design for one flower bed, in which arcs of flowers with pink, red or magenta colored petals overlap each other.
As far as summer jobs go, Monforton said there’s a reason she chooses to spend her days contending with the heat and mosquitoes in the garden — she likes the interaction.
“It seems like when people go shopping for plants or when they’re in gardens, they’re never stressed,” Monforton said. “Pretty much everyone who stops to talk is doing so because they are genuinely interested, genuinely want to talk and it’s always a pleasant experience.”
For Monforton, there isn’t a better place to be. She said her time working in various gardens over the past few summers has taught her a lot about plants and people. It’s a life skill.
“I had never done any gardening before and now it’s become something I really love to do and I think I’ll do for the rest of my life,” Monforton said.
And Monforton is not alone in her love of gardening.
Applied engineering sophomore Nick Mikelsavage said in addition to loving to work outside, he can watch his work come to life.
“The best thing is having everyone walk through and admire your work,” Mikelsavage said.
