Many students have noticed that there has been quite a bit or activity going on in the garden courtyard. Maintenance and physical plant workers have been busy digging, moving and hauling materials in and out of the courtyard. So what is the plan for the area?

Jeff Jennings is the Grounds & Roads Maintenance Supervisor at SMSU.

“We are renovating parts of the existing memorial/dedicated gardens that were getting too overgrown,” Jennings said. “Our overall vision is to renovate areas as needed to help reduce maintenance and to improve function in the space.”

The plans for the garden courtyard for the coming year are to remove a few of the trees and trim the remaining ones. Another goal is to add a retaining wall around the tree growing on the small mound in the south-center of the courtyard.

Much of the overgrown areas have already been flattened and seeded, which is what the small excavators in the courtyard were used for. The doors between the SM and ST buildings were unlatched and partially removed to get the vehicles into the courtyard.

Cory VanDeVere, a groundskeeper, explained how it’s decided what stays and what goes.

“We remove anything unusual or not in good health,” VanDeVere said. “People donate money and can put plants in here. Once they move on and don’t take care of it, we decide what’s good to remove or keep.”

For now, winter has stopped work on the courtyards, but general maintenance should resume next spring.