A garden runs through it

Amid the machine screams of automobile traffic and the foot shuffle of freshman orientation, some campus community members took a weekend garden walk through Bloomington. \nThe sixteenth annual Summer Garden Walk, organized by the Bloomington Garden Club, benefited civic projects such as the Hilltop Garden and Nature Center, Bloomington Animal Shelter landscaping and the hospice sanctuary at the Bloomington Hospital. Thousands of participants perused six gardens spread throughout the town, from personal residences to the IU Bryan House -- home to President Adam Herbert and his wife.\n"I think the garden walk at the Bryan House was pretty good today with the heat -- a couple hundred people came through," said Bloomington resident Dan Nicholas, a 2005 Summer Garden Walk volunteer. "Some people are interested in plants here they haven't seen before, especially the Ligularia."\nNicholas said Ligularia looks like a Lilly pad but it is instead a vertical perennial with a kind of maroonish-tint on each green leaf. He said Bryan House garden walk participants meandered within the west-side flower beds or the more naturalistic outdoor floral arrangements on the east side of the house.\n"Trial and error determines what flowers, shrubs or trees go where," said Devin McGuire, the lone gardener for IU's Bryan House for about the last 18 years. "After a while, you get a feel for sunny plants or shady plants -- what needs a little care versus a lot ... The Bryan House garden is a public area students can walk through on campus to pause for a moment and notice the wildlife."\nMcGuire said he strives to discover plant life that doesn't require a lot of human maintenance throughout the year. He said he selects plants with varying textures to highlight his outdoor floral arrangements, and he prefers planting trees and shrubs instead of annuals. \n"IU Chancellor Herman B Wells had this vision that we needed to keep these precious islands of green and serenity, these places people can pause to reflect and dream dreams," McGuire said. "He wanted students to come by, pause and reflect for a moment to appreciate what's around and not always the next thing they're supposed to be doing. There are several benches around the property that provide a quite place to sit and study."\nBloomington residents Terry Baer and Joyce Rose, Bloomington Garden Club members and summer garden walk volunteers stationed near the Bryan House parking lot, said about 600 participants wandered throughout the campus gardens -- down from about 1,000 visitors at other garden walk locations throughout town.\n"These gardens are accessible most of the year, moreso than the other private gardens," Baer said. "They are aesthetically pleasing and if students have had a bad day, who wouldn't want to be inspired?"\nOther summer garden walk hot spots included Sue and Tom Berry's house, Robert Brookshire and Kris Floyd's house, Fred and Beth Cate's house, Jim and Harriet Kulis' house and the Hilltop Garden and Nature Center.\nMcGuire said his favorite garden moment involves picking fresh raspberries near the Bryan House shed, to deliver to Wells on his birthdays. In addition to maintaining the landscape, he said his duties involve assisting the Herberts' interior wishes for floral decorations and formal gathering set-ups. \nAlthough most of the Bryan House gardens are free and open to the public throughout the year, the summer garden walk allowed paying visitors to examine a small pond located in a private fenced-off area on the east side of the house. According to information from a Bryan House garden walk handout, McGuire fished a driftwood stump from Lake Griffy and added rocks and moss to give the pool a more natural appearance. McGuire said he has pursued undergraduate studies at IU since he first arrived on campus as a freshman in 1979. He said astronomy studies have taught him how to predict the rate of climate change as it pertains to the years of drought or heavy moisture.\n"I am learning to cooperate with nature instead of trying to make things happen," McGuire said. "My favorite time is fall -- late September, early October -- when the leaves are all turning red and orange and the green grass matures. I feel pretty lucky and fortunate to have fallen into gardening at the Bryan House. Most days are a pleasure."\nHe recommends students "pick up their trash" to help maintain the Bryan House's picturesque landscape. McGuire said the only severe damage and destruction to the gardens other than a few fallen trees occurred when thousands of students gathered on the front steps to protest Myles Brand's firing of Bob Knight in 2000.\n"So far the rabbits and some deer are the biggest culprits to garden damage," he said. "It doesn't take much to chew down a Day Lilly or the Hostas"