By Jason Stapley
An evening walk by the Botany Pond and the surrounding grove of trees may feel more like a stroll down lover''s lane, but the area is used for purposes more academic than matchmaking.
The College of Biology and Agriculture uses the pond, arboretum and surrounding gardens as teaching tools in programs with any botanical interest.
Professors in the Departments of Integrative Biology and Plant and Animal Science teach classes around the arboretum and BYU Range Garden. The range garden is located on the hill just north of the pond and arboretum, and is sort of a botanical map of the western United States.
Six simulated plant environments make up the range garden. They include samples of desert shrubs and mountain foliage. Other simulated environments that cannot grow in Utah''s harsh weather are maintained in the greenhouse adjacent to the arboretum.
Daniel Fairbanks, professor of plant and animal sciences, said the gardens and arboretum get a lot of use.
'They teach a lot of classes there,' Fairbanks said.
Landscape design students use the BYU Terraced Garden just east of the pond as a resource in learning design techniques. Students maintain the garden and are given the chance to design flowerbeds each year.
Earl Hansen, one of the professionals in charge of the terraced garden, said it is an asset to the college.
'Students plant the seeds in the greenhouse and put them into pony packs to get them ready to plant,' Hansen said. ' design and build structures and benches .'
In addition to learning about the flora in the garden, students also learn about soils, Hansen said. They see the process from beginning to end and many make what they learn into six-figure incomes, he said.
The terraced garden uses a hi-tech watering and fertilizing system. The system uses sensors to determine water saturation and staff members use computers to mix in fertilizer, Hansen said.
Before the terraced garden, native foliage covered the hill. The college built the garden as a spot where students could learn much closer to campus. Previously, classes walked to the BYU Horticultural Garden next to Kiwanis Park.
'This location just works out so much better for us,' Hansen said.
Although the college cut back on its horticultural emphasis after last year''s reorganization, it still gets plenty of use from the gardens.
The college used to maintain research gardens on the opposite side of 800 North, but was forced to do away with those a few years ago. Fairbanks said the college transferred the samples to a site in Spanish Fork.