BYU Grounds Maintenance is gearing up for graduation, and with that comes pruning, planting and plenty of mulch.
BYU campus encompasses more than 700 acres of land and is overseen by its ground maintenance team, said Camille Ewell, lead grounds maintenance supervisor.
Crews have been working for months to get BYU’s campus ready for graduation, Ewell said.
“There are a lot of shrubs that need to be cut back during the winter months and/or early spring for their proper growth and development,” Ewell said.
Crews also planted tulip and daffodil bulbs during the fall months and are currently tending to the flower beds by clearing out old leaves and spreading mulch.
Lans Clemmens, who has worked with the department for 18 years, supervises a student crew. Flowers are one of the biggest attractions at graduation, he said, so they are a large priority for the team.
“We want to have all the flower beds in so that everybody coming to visit and take graduation pictures has a nice flower bed to be around,” Clemmens said.
However, not everything is coming up roses. Maintenance teams are currently navigating challenges like broken sprinkler systems and local deer populations, Ewell said.
“We have been having more difficulty with plant material damage from deer each year,” Ewell said. “A lot of our flowerbeds are being dug up as the deer dig out the tulip bulbs for food.”
There is not much crews can do about the deer except let Mother Nature take its course, Clemmens said.
“You plant a bunch of bulbs to come up in the spring and then the deer eat them and you’re kind of going, ‘Well there goes that design,’” Clemmens said.
In addition to the deer that roam campus, students also impact the landscape. Many students walk across the grass in order to save time walking to classes, but cutting corners today can lead to brown lawns tomorrow, Clemmens said.
“When the grass is frozen and people walk on it, the blade of grass gets broken right at the surface and then it dies from there because there’s no chlorophyll going to the end of the grass blade,” Clemmens said.
Walking through shrub beds and lawn patches also creates soil compaction and discourages future plant growth, Ewell said.
Student crew member Eric Johnson said one of the problems he regularly encounters is overflowing trash cans. Students can prevent this by taking their trash to bins with more empty space in order to avoid spillage and help ground crew members, he said.
“If people just walk another 20 to 50 feet to the next trash can, that would be really helpful,” Johnson said.
Of course, the grounds are meant to be enjoyed as well as protected, Ewell said.
“We love seeing students enjoying our lawns on those warmer days studying, visiting with a friend or even taking a nap,” Ewell said. “We want everyone to enjoy our beautiful campus.”
With an eye on April's graduation ceremony, Clemmens shared a simple message to remind students of what they can do to help crews prepare for the season of celebration.
“If there’s frost on the ground, stay off, pick up after yourselves and your animals and just enjoy,” Clemmens said.
While maintenance crews work year-round, they hope to have flowers blooming and the grounds gleaming before April, Clemmens said. Afterwards, they will shift back to their regular maintenance schedules.