Jessica Chambers
Coordinator
Jenna Rozum
Graduate Assistant
Jonathan Damery
Undergraduate Assistant
Brittnay Whitted
Undergarduate Assistant
Mike Busing
Horticulture Center Assistant
The central focus of my job as Horticulture Coordinator is to develop the Horticulture Center and that entails many different aspects. It may include watering the annual beds, visiting “green” buildings, weeding, developing a web site and brochures, giving tours, planting hundreds of pumpkins seeds, writing grants, applying insecticides — basically it runs the gambit. And what a wonderful gambit it is!
As a horticulture alumna from ISU (1993) I am devoted to making this project become a reality. I wish I had had the opportunity to do such projects as receiving honors credit for designing and establishing an identification perennial bed, or maybe to have done a research study on zinnias, or perhaps to have even had the opportunity to be “Horticulture Center Assistant”. What I can do now is to make this a reality for our current students and for those that are yet to be Horticultural Redbirds!
As a graduate assistant for the Horticulture Center, my responsibilities include everything from garden research and design, to writing for our newsletter, to volunteer coordination . . . and not to forget the never ending watering and weeding. All aspects of working at the Horticulture Center have provided me valuable hands-on experience in this field.
The time that I have spent at the Horticulture Center, either in the beginning as a volunteer or now as a graduate assistant, has given me a greater appreciation for the hard work and countless hours that it takes to develop the grounds. Being a part of this has renewed and affirmed my love for all areas of horticulture and I am privileged to be a part of something so wonderful.
Gardening is an artistic act. It may not seem as such when you’re doing the grubby tasks gardeners often must do, but it is true. Artists, musicians, poets, and gardeners are all cut from the same cloth, and all are called to lend a hand in creating something fresh and new for others to enjoy. It is a fine task, and as the undergraduate student assistant at the ISU Horticulture Center, it is a task that I have the pleasure of taking part in.
Like the artist who is always painting new pictures to hang in his (or her) gallery, gardening is a whole cycle of preparation and presentation. Of course the preparation is never as beautiful as the final product, but the whole process is what the artist enjoys. At the Horticulture Center, the preparation that I have been involved in includes everything from weeding and watering to placing stones and moving soil with our tractor. It covers a whole timeline, beginning with planting and ending with cleaning the beds after the frost. Then, there are also times for presenting our work, much like the artist who is ready to unveil a new painting. We are able to present our work to the community members both informally, when visitors simply stop by to enjoy the gardens, and also formally, at events like our annual Autumnal Festival.
I am thankful to be a part of all that goes on here.