Meander long enough on Rutgers’ Cook Campus, and at some point you’ll come to a dreamlike oasis with 175 acres of exotic trees, a bamboo forest with a gushing stream, rolling meadows, and a garden of exotic herbs. Some who stumble upon it think they’ve found a secret garden.
If Rutgers administrators are successful, this university gem – known as the Rutgers Gardens – may become a well-known entity in New Jersey. They are contemplating what the gardens will look like in five, 50, or 100 years; how the gardens can serve as a beacon to interest people in learning more about the university; and how to keep the gardens “green” as they evolve as a community focal point for gardening or just simply relaxing.
The “dreamer in chief” is Bruce Crawford. Crawford passionately defines gardens as “romantic enclosures that create their own special mood.” After 24 years as the owner of a landscape design company called Garden Architecture, 20 as adjunct instructor of landscape architecture at Rutgers, and two as the director of the gardens, Crawford has plenty to draw upon as he leads a master planning effort.
Crawford keeps close tabs on the evolving “special mood” of the gardens. On a recent early-morning walkabout, Crawford noticed that more and more people are strolling with dogs in the gardens. This prompted him to add dog leashes to the products sold in the gardens’ new gift shop: entrepreneurial and convenient, but also a subtle reminder for people to keep their dogs leashed in the gardens, Crawford said.
The Potting Shed Gift Shop opened May 13; for now, it is open on weekends, including Friday afternoons. It is expected to open on weekdays next year. The shop is located in a rustic structure built sometime during the early 1940s. It offers ice cream and soda, an inventory of Rutgers hats and shirts, and it displays promotional materials about the university as well as gardening fact sheets.
The Rutgers Gardens attract about 15,000 visitors a year, which makes the gift shop important because anyone can walk in and learn something about the university, Crawford said. “We want to tap into this opportunity to expose people to research at Rutgers, from work on ethnic vegetables, peach trees, and blueberries, to research going on ‘across town’ in departments like history and psychology,” he said. “We want people to say, ‘Cool school! I want to learn something here!’”
Raising the profile of the gardens while maintaining their serene atmosphere will require a master designer’s touch. “Our intention for the long-term future is to maintain the gardens’ innocence by prohibiting cars in the gardens,” said Crawford. “Any new buildings will be on the outer perimeter of the gardens, while the old rustic structures will remain in the interior.” The older buildings include the Log Cabin, built in 1935; the Holly House, built prior to 1917; and the Superintendent’s House, which dates from the late 1800s. “With planning and management, we can add value without harming its peaceful solitude that many have come to know and enjoy,” Crawford said.
Crawford began leading formal meetings to discuss a master plan for the future of the gardens in November 2006. Since then, he has met with university administrators, students, and the public. He also has talked with local school boards, the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, nursery and landscape associations, and garden clubs.
New facilities that will likely find their way into the plan include a visitor center, classrooms, and a children’s education center. The center would foster plant and environmental education and introduce parents and potential students to opportunities at Rutgers. All new structures and parking facilities will be built according to nationally accepted benchmarks for the design, construction, and operation of high-performance green buildings.
As befits a university-based garden, there is a strong educational component that runs through the present and future of the garden. Since the mid-1990s, students have been paid to intern at the gardens; but the program has not offered credit, and students mainly do maintenance work, such as mowing, weeding, planting, and fertilizing. This summer, for the first time, there will be a student working in the gardens for credit. Crawford is lobbying hard for a credit-bearing course in which students would run trials on plants.
The largest educational component so far has been Design Week Charrette, a five-day learning experience, which took place this spring. Under the leadership of Allan Shearer, professor of landscape architecture, about 60 landscape architecture students took on the challenge of coming up with their own proposals for the Rutgers Gardens master plan. With the help of Shearer and lectures from other School of Environmental and Biological Sciences faculty and professional landscape architects, each of five teams of students produced a concept sketch for the gardens of the future. This included tree layouts and the location of new gardens and buildings. “The students helped us to focus on some of the issues that were confronting us in the master plan, and they brought a few new issues to the forefront, such as traffic and parking,” Crawford said.
Another academic component of the master plan is likely to be the Horticultural Therapy Certificate program. Offered by the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, the program is expected to build partnerships with neighboring hospitals and senior facilities, adding a strong community relations element to the gardens. Enhancing the education mission is a plan to make Rutgers Gardens handicapped accessible, opening them up to a broader segment of the community.
The master plan may seem a long way off, but, as Crawford explains, creating the plan is an ongoing process. “No one can predict how all the elements will come together in the next 50 years. Some aspects may be implemented within five years; others may take 20 or 30,” he said. “What is important is that we look at the possibilities and plan for the future so that we have a clear idea of our preferred outcome.”
To Crawford, that would be a garden that serves the university and surrounding community while retaining the mystique of a “secret garden.”