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Visit us Tuesday through Sunday
8:00am to 7:00pm
Rutgers Gardens is closed every Monday
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Dear Friends of Rutgers Gardens,
For each of us, the Gardens represent a beloved space that offers many opportunities for education, engagement, and enjoyment. The Rutgers Gardens strategic vision planning process is steadily moving forward, and many of the stakeholders contributing feedback so far have confirmed what we recognize to be one of the key challenges to student and community use of Rutgers Gardens: access. As we prepare for the start of the new academic year at Rutgers, we remain committed to addressing this concern.
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In addition to continuing to evaluate how we can help students and community residents reach Rutgers Gardens at the traditional Ryders Lane location, we are beginning to implement initiatives that will bring the impact and experience of Rutgers Gardens to the core area of Cook Campus. Through our Campus Stewardship initiative, we are integrating the management of Rutgers Gardens with that of other teaching-focused gardens, farms, and greenhouses within the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS). These growing spaces, which collectively meet aesthetic, ecological, food security, and wellness goals, serve as “living laboratories” that provide increased opportunities for experiential learning and community engagement. Connecting these growing spaces under one umbrella with shared management will broaden their collective impact while contributing to the long-term sustainability of Rutgers Gardens through increased alignment with the Rutgers—New Brunswick Academic Master Plan. | |
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Rutgers Gardens has traditionally operated in its primary location on Ryders Lane and will continue to do so with earnest, including through the successful efforts of the Rutgers Gardens Student Farm. Under the Campus Stewardship initiative, Rutgers Gardens extends to include additional demonstration and learning spaces that are readily accessible for Rutgers students. Collectively, these satellite locations will include ornamental and ecological display gardens on the core of Cook campus, including the Jones Avenue and Martin Hall urban gardens, the Cook Organic Garden, and the Floriculture greenhouse. In the months ahead, we will also explore how to better connect Helyar Woods and other university forests for maximum student success and community engagement while preserving key research initiatives in each. Excitedly, this collective management approach will increase our ability to offer student internships, hands-on learning opportunities for classes, and community events throughout the year. | |
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We truly appreciate our many collaborators - volunteers, members, donors, alumni, faculty, staff, students, and others - whose efforts in support of Rutgers Gardens make this expansion possible. We are excited to continue welcoming visitors and volunteers to Rutgers Gardens and look forward to sharing new opportunities to participate in the expanded SEBS-affiliated teaching gardens, farms, and greenhouses as we grow. It is also our goal to re-envision and expand public programs in these spaces, which we will be pleased to do in partnership with multiple university and community collaborators. We look forward to sharing additional developments, and the Rutgers Gardens Vision Plan in its entirety, over the months ahead.
See you in the Gardens!
Lauren Errickson
Director, Rutgers Gardens and Campus Stewardship
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Dispatches from Cook Campus:
The Horticulture and Landscape Management interns are revitalizing the Foran Hall Conservation Garden
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Words & photos by Aidan Icasiano,
Rutgers Gardens student intern
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Throughout the summer, the Rutgers Gardens Horticulture & Landscape Management team has been bringing their hands-on approach to an exciting new project: extending our stewardship to George H. Cook campus soil. This opportunity was spurred on by an ongoing effort to strengthen ties between Rutgers Gardens and the campus, which gave our crew the chance to revitalize and restore a well-known area in need of some TLC. | |
A view of the Foran Hall Conservation Garden before the Rutgers Gardens Hort interns began their revitalization project. | |
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The Foran Hall Conservation Garden was founded in 2001 and is situated between its namesake building and the Cook/Douglass Lecture Hall. As such, the paths around the garden receive plenty of foot traffic, but the overgrown beds have made it difficult to access the garden.
The team quickly got to work on June 27th, and it has been an ongoing effort since then, working directly under the massive honey locust and redbud trees.
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After weeks of hard work, the beds are much clearer and provide a welcoming environment to take a few moments between classes. Having spent a lot of time working under the structure we nicknamed “the birdcage,” we were glad to open the space around it and let the native plants shine. Now, our mission is to continue the upkeep on these beds and maintain this clean presentation. The Rutgers Gardens crew will oversee the landscape maintenance of the conservation garden for the rest of the year. | |
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A sitting area in the conservation garden that the interns affectionately dubbed
"the birdcage" before many invasive plants were cleared.
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This project also provided the Rutgers Gardens interns with educational insight into the benefits of conservation gardens. By shaping the grounds to mimic a natural ecosystem, a conservation garden can mitigate competition amongst plants, protect declining species, and preserve native species. Such native species will be better acclimated to our ecosystem and adapted to the environmental stressors. The Foran Hall Conservation Garden provides a space for native plants to grow unobstructed. These beds were designed to create a habitat for wildlife and with the intent to rely less on human intervention for their upkeep. The garden was meant to maintain itself through the self-seeding of desired plants.
As Rutgers Gardens interns, we’ve learned the importance of adaptable thinking on the job, which aided us since our landscaping plan for the conservation garden required a slightly different approach. Rather than working towards a full clearing of the area, the garden required careful editing by removing invasive plants overtaking the space and ensuring that native plants can thrive and will not outcompete one another.
Our plan for limiting the number of invasive plants includes slowing the spread of redbud and honey locust saplings, reducing the sprawl of the native honeysuckle, which was weighing down the birdcage, and removing gardener’s pests such as the sprawling mugwort and deep-rooting dogsbane. It is important to note that, while honey locusts, redbuds, and honeysuckle are native plants, we don’t want them completely taking over the garden so we can keep its herbaceous features.
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Looking forward, the Hort team is excited to take on additional horticulture and landscape projects on the Cook campus. Plotting has already begun for a collaboration with Harvest Café and the Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health. Ultimately, our hope is that we continue to become more involved on-campus, offering our time and the skills and knowledge we’ve acquired through the Rutgers Gardens Internship Program in the planning of future endeavors. | |
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Rutgers Gardens highlighted in a popular
NJ.com feature
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Rutgers Gardens is happy to share that we've been included in the longstanding NJ.com series, "You've Never Seen New Jersey Like This." Videographer Andre Molok visited Rutgers Gardens and Cook's Market in August to capture some unique views that illustrate what makes this little corner of New Jersey so special!
Watch the Rutgers Gardens and Cook's Market video at this link, and check out some of the other places to visit on your New Jersey travel & tourism bucket list.
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What's blooming at Rutgers Gardens in August | |
We hope you've had a chance to explore Rutgers Gardens this month. The display gardens are popping with color and attracting a large number of pollinators, including monarch butterflies. The paths in the Rhododendron and Rain Gardens provide ample shade for a peaceful walk listening to the birds, as do the Helyar Woods trails. Catch the vibrant blooms of many annual and flowering perennial plants at their peak. | |
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Celosia ‘Burning Embers’ and
Zinnia Zowie! Yellow Flame
in the All-America Selections Garden
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Celosia ‘Flamma Orange' in the
All-America Selections Garden
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Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata) & Cattails (Typha latifolia) in the Donald B. Lacey Display Garden pond | |
Surprise Lily (Lycoris squamigera) near the Otken Garden | |
Monarch butterflies enjoying Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica), Castor bean (Ricinus communis), and Verbena (Verbena bonariens) in the Donald B. Lacey Display Garden | |
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Canna lily in a container on the steps near the Roy H. DeBoer
Evergreen Garden
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Dragonfly on a Celosia (Celosia palmeri) in the Donald B. Lacey Display Garden | |
Zinnias, Globe amaranth (Gomphrena globosa), and Verbena (Verbena bonariens) in the Donald B. Lacey Display Garden | |
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Cardinal flowers (Lobelia cardinalis - our Plant of the Year!) are blooming now
in the Rain Garden
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Our next "Explore with an Expert" tour is
Saturday, September 14th:
Preparing your Vegetable Garden for Winter
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While there are still a few months remaining in the growing season, it’s not too early to start thinking about preparing your vegetable garden for the winter. The decisions you make now and into the fall have significant implications for the success of your garden next spring! Join Alex Sawatzky, Assistant Director of Sustainable Agriculture and Urban Farms, for a discussion about winterizing practices at the Rutgers Gardens Student Farm. During this show-and-tell, Alex will talk about why off-season care of your garden can be just as important as in-season maintenance, including topics such as protecting and feeding your soil, pest and disease considerations, the benefits and challenges of cover crops, and the pros and cons of different types of mulch. End-of-season cleanup and winterizing may not be as glamorous as spring planting, but your future self will surely thank you when it’s time to get growing again!
For September’s exploration, we recommend comfortable footwear (closed toe shoes, please) and sun protection if it’s going to be a sunny day. Please bring plenty of water to stay hydrated. Tour participants should be prepared to spend up to two hours outdoors walking along uneven or unpaved pathways and through grass and dirt.
Reserve a ticket here!
The tour begins at 10:00am and tickets are just $35 per person. Ticket fees for these events help us maintain Rutgers Gardens while keeping admission free all year long. Thank you for your support!
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Cook's Market is going strong halfway through
the season!
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It's hard to believe we're already at the midway point for the 2024 Cook's Market season. Our farmers market operates rain or shine every Friday through December 13th, pausing only on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Please stop by when you have a chance!
Cook's Market has farm fresh produce from three local growers (including the Rutgers Gardens Student Farm), ready-to-eat foods, a coffee truck, delicious desserts, artisanal mushrooms, sourdough breads, honey, pickles, hot sauce, craft spirits, and more.
We asked the Rutgers Gardens Student Farm interns to share what they like best about working at Cook's Market. Here are some of their responses:
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Niamh Gaffney:
"What I like most about Cook's Market is the variety of vendors and the fulfilling feeling of selling food we've harvested throughout the week to the local community!"
Amanda Sullivan:
"I like seeing the smiles on the customers' faces after they see all the colorful vegetables. Then all the hard work is paid off."
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AJ Vignuolo:
"I love Cook's Market because I love when we put all the vegetables out and you can see it all come together."
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Social Media Updates
You may have noticed that we've taken a step back from utilizing the Rutgers Gardens Facebook account. The page was receiving increasing amounts of spam in recent months. Please follow the Rutgers Gardens Instagram account for updates, photos, event announcements, intern stories, and more!
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Follow Cook's Market
on Instagram
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Follow the Rutgers Gardens Student Farm on Instagram | |
Follow Rutgers Gardens on Instagram | | | | |
