This artist's conception
shows the planned layout of the medieval garden,
which will become part of the University arboretum planned for the University
Park campus.
Penn State's famed Trial Gardens are getting a new tenant. This spring, the University will break ground for a medieval garden, with quite a bit of help from students in the Landscape Contracting Program, collaboration with the Cloisters at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and financial support from AT&T.
"The garden grew out of last year's annual medieval studies conference, which was organized around the theme of the medieval landscape," said Vicki Ziegler, director of the Center for Medieval Studies and professor of German. "We designed and planted a garden for the conference, which was so well received that AT&T agreed to help fund a permanent one. They have supported our conferences in the past and were especially interested in this project since students will be so involved."
The garden will change with each season as new and rare plants are added. The first plantings of the 160-foot-by-50-foot garden will go in this spring with a groundbreaking scheduled for the annual medieval studies conference, which next year will be focused on "The Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the Medieval World," March 31 and April 1, 2000.
Eventually, it also will become part of the larger University arboretum now planned for that area of campus. In addition, the garden will be a focal point for a national conference at Penn State on teaching the Middle Ages for the National Medieval Academy in September 2000.
Martin McGann, a restoration landscape architect, has designed the garden in three sections in the medieval tradition with an enclosed pleasure ground of fruit and shade trees with lawn and benches, a kitchen garden for household and medicinal uses and a formal enclosed garden with a fountain or font and ornamental plants and benches. He is an assistant professor of landscape contracting in the Department of Horticulture and worked on the gardens for Sleepy Hollow in Tarrytown, N.Y. He will direct the students' work during construction and planting.
"Our landscape contracting students have done a fine job on many campus projects such as the outdoor eatery at Otto's in Kern Building, and the planting design and installation at The Nittany Lion Inn expansion," McGann said. "I think this will be an excellent educational and work-skill development project for them. The students spend a lot of time in the classroom studying garden design and planning, construction methodology and techniques and this is an excellent opportunity for them to put this knowledge into practice."
"Even before a stone is turned or a plant is planted, faculty from several colleges at Penn State have expressed an interest in using the Medieval garden in their teaching," Ziegler said. "Faculty from the School of Nursing who are interested in teaching alternative medicines want to use it, as do faculty in art, horticulture and plant pathology, among others. We plan to feature it in outreach programs to area schools as well as to individuals and groups working in alternative medicine and holistic health. I am sure it also will become a destination point for parents, alumni and other visitors to Penn State."