Jens Hilke '96, Arboretum Intern 1996-1997
In its ongoing commitment to raising environmental awareness on campus, and as an environmental model to the campus community, the Earth House has been working to create a landscape around the building that is consistent with this mission. The landscape plan is the design-work of a recent Connecticut College Botany and Environmental Studies Major, Alison Flynn '94. It stresses the use of NATIVE trees and shrubs, energy conservation, increasing biodiversity, as well as practical and aesthetic considerations.
Native trees and shrubs are of considerable importance in a design focusing on energy conservation. Native plants are best suited to this area's growing conditions and consequently require only minimal maintenance. The increased use of exotic plants in landscape design has created an enormous problem of invasive exotics. Burning bush (Euonymus altus), for example, is a common landscape plant that is very invasive in open areas. Other exotic plants, while not necessarily invasive, are taking space and resources away from our native plants. Exotics can have a profound negative effect on the landscape. Therefore, this landscape plan utilizes only native plants.
Energy conservation in landscape management is a key issue. The American fascination with the mowed lawn is incredibly energy intensive. 3,000,000 tons of fertilizer is used annually in maintaining American lawns. 40% of the fertilizer sold in Connecticut is used for non-agricultural purposes (Arboretum Bulletin 21, William A. Niering). Furthermore, the two-stroke gasoline engine (most lawn mowers and string trimmers) is the most polluting engine we have. Theses polluting machines require millions of gallons of fossil fuels annually. Large quantities of pesticides are applied to force this artificial environment into this monoculture of grass. Up to 40% of all pesticide use is applied in urban and suburban areas. (Bulletin 21 William A. Niering) With this in mind, the Earth House landscape design features a very reduced mowed area.
Species diversity is an important consideration in the landscape. The mowed lawn is a forced monoculture (single species) which forbids other plants from utilizing these resources. With this in mind, the Earth House landscape plan utilizes a diverse plant screen from route 32, which tapers down in height from 10 ft. (Rt. 32 side) to 2 ft. (house side). This screen then blends into a meadow area, followed by a small mowed area. The meadow is an important and beautiful aspect of the landscape. It allows for a colorful display of many of our native wildflowers, it has significant value for wildlife, and it shows the diversity potential for mowed areas. The landscape plan also includes the planting of some specimen trees, on the side- yard, near the driveway, to round out the full range of possibilities. We believe that this level of diversity, with the meadow as an integral member, will be a truly visually appealing, and ecologically sound addition to the Connecticut College Landscape.
This landscape plan takes into account such features as student access, angle of the sun for maximum penetration, views of the river, and visual appeal from route 32. The plan is a careful balance of these considerations along side the over-arching ideology of environmentally sound landscaping. This careful balance will provide the Connecticut College Community with an opportunity to experience species diverse, naturalistic landscaping on campus.