Derrick the Oiler admires campus on a sunny day this summer. Photo by Anne Risser Lee.

Thousands of annuals, 16 hanging baskets, 25 pedestal baskets, 22 concrete planters and a dedicated physical plant staff make for one beautiful campus.
    
Geraniums, wave petunias, marigolds, impatiens, vines, shrubs, trees and grass are cared for daily by five staff members and their summer student helpers on the main campus. They’re responsible for mowing, weeding, trimming, watering and dead-heading flowers – there are 500 geraniums around the flagpole alone. And although the new planters and baskets were designed for minimal care, they still need watered daily.
    
According to Keith Samsal, groundskeeper, each staff member and student is assigned a specific area of campus to care for. To help with the new landscaping this year, an extra student was hired for the sole purpose of watering and dead-heading. Courtney Lewis, daughter of UF staff members Jeff and Colleen Lewis, worked for eight hours a day watering in the morning and dead-heading in the afternoon until her last day of work at UF, Aug. 8.

Courtney Lewis, summer helper, waters a hanging basket in front of Old Main. Photo by Anne Risser Lee.

Caring for the grounds is the end result of good planning this spring. In January, UF staff members attended a trade show in Columbus and came back with some great ideas, such as hanging flower baskets from campus lampposts. To reduce damage to the posts and make the baskets easy to replace, the University used a specially made stainless ring with a 3” lip to clamp to the posts.
    
Each basket – which is powder coated to avoid rust – sits inside the ring, which means that next spring, the baskets will simply be filled with flowers and UF staff members will drop the baskets into the ring. During the winter, the rings can be used to hang seasonal greenery, such as pine boughs.
    
The additional planters were purchased to add more color to several areas of campus, but Old Main remains the focal point. All landscaping decisions on campus are made with the original architecture of the buildings in mind, and a University handbook is available to aid in those decisions.
    
And as if the planters and flowers weren’t enough to make campus beautiful, the grounds crew planted 50 trees, including crimson maples and Canadian cherries, last year and added many shrubs and other perennials this year to the area around Bare and Fox residence halls, as well as to other areas of campus.
    
“I’ve seen people walk around and admire the landscaping during orientation and registration days,” said Samsal. “We’re beautifying campus, and it’s appreciated.”
    
There are plans to add more color to other areas of campus next year, and some of the planters may be moved. With help from Stratton Greenhouse staff, who put together the planters and baskets, next spring promises to be just as colorful.