Construction in the Ricks Gardens underway

Students in a landscape construction class are making some additions to the Thomas E. Ricks Gardens.

Brother Byron John is supervising the students’ project.

“This will be an Italian-themed garden – a lot of architectural features: walls, coarse textures and the idea of antiquity – old ruins.”

"Some of these walls we’re gonna have exposed brick, and the look is that stucco is kinda falling off . . . and left exposed the interior core of the wall, which is brick . . . we’re gonna have arches over these columns . . . Eventually I’d love to see more statues – statues are an important part of Italian gardens."

“And also in Italian gardens you’ll have a lot of vertical emphasis – so a vertical emphasis on the columns, vertical plants.”

“We’re putting some night lighting in here right now, so it’s illuminated and has that nice, warm glow. Maybe even kind of a dream item might be a pizza oven – that would be a real hit I’m sure. So we’ll see how that goes in the future.”

“The students are going to get a real wide variety of experiences doing this.”

Sophomore Chris Reed says this type of class is especially engaging for him.

“Hands on knowledge – I think that’s the best way to learn is to actually get out and do it, rather than just read about it. Sometimes you have a hard time visualizing what you’re supposed to be doing, rather than if you’re out actually doing it, then it’s easier to learn.”

For Ben Hardy, it’s the challenge that’s so appealing.

“To me, I think it’s fun. I like the problem solving.”

“I’m excited to see the end result. I mean it’s fun seeing it all come from the ground up, but the end result is actually the best, the most enjoyable."

Reporting for I~NEWS, I'm Derek Wilcox

The project will be completed by the end of Fall semester 2010. For more information on the Horticulture Department and landscape design projects in the gardens, visit byuihorticulture.weebly.com. Click here for more information on the Ricks Gardens, and here to view the gardens from an updated webcam.