Urban Garden

Maybe "sustainable bird garden" isn't the first thing that comes to mind when you think about downtown Newark, NJ, but did you know that we have not one, but two of them on the Rutgers campus here?

These gardens were planted and enlarged over the past several Earth Days with the help of student volunteers, the Greater Newark Conservancy, and campus staff. Our very own Professor Claus Holzapfel helped choose plants that would attract and feed the birds that regularly fly over campus on their migratory paths.

Right now both gardens are in full bloom in the Norman Samuels Plaza. Helen Paxton took these great photos of the plants (and bumblebees) this week.

The signage on our first garden, the smaller of the two, describes the project.

Our larger bird garden includes a sign with photos and descriptions of a few of the many bird species (over 100!) that have been spotted on campus.

Close up of a bumblebee on an echinacea plant - if you click on the photo for the larger version, you'll see some amazing detail on the wings. I love this photo (and no, I'm not just saying that because the photographer happens to be my boss!)

Campus Flowers and a Bicycle

Samer Fouad sent this photo of "Rutgers Newark from a flower's view." He writes "Beautiful, ain't it?" Yes, Samer, very pretty!For a very different perspective of the same red and white flowers, Amir Mahmoud sent this of his friends Maha El-Samna and Valerie Dorfman walking to class. It looks like they're enjoying themselves - who knew walking to class could be so fun?I had quite a lot of photos in my inbox last night, but my favorite by far was this one by Sidrah Seikh, who said "I took this in front of Conklin Hall. I just love the combination of all the shadows and colors that show how bright the day was and how colorful the campus is." I agree - and I love the bike in the foreground. (also notice the red and white flowers make an appearance in the background, see how I'm tying them all together here?)

For those of you who haven't seen your photos posted yet, I'm still going through them - there's at least 2 more I want to post in the next day or so.