Students walk past a group of flowers outside the Caruth building. The flower bed is one of many around campus.
The large white boxes marked with the recycling logo hold a secret. Their purpose is more than to house empty coke bottles – they are the secret to the landscaping beauty of SMU. SMU’s recycling program is the leading fund to the landscaping department on campus.
Every day students pass men on their hands and knees in the dirt, colorful flowers that bloom throughout campus and individuals trimming trees. These men and women constantly nurture the campus. They water the trees, plant native and exotic flowers and use the student’s environmental efforts to beautify the campus.
Kevin Dillard serves as SMU’s superintendent of landscaping. With 19 staff members working to make this school beautiful, he has a challenge before him.
In the middle of Highland Park, SMU’s landscape has a lot to live up to. But that is not a challenge for the team. Dillard explained the mechanics and the reasoning that go on when nobody is watching.
Perennial, annual, tropical and native flowers fill the gorgeous beds, corners and walks around campus.
Annual flowers die when the colder weather hits Texas, so Dillard’s team has switched many of the flowerbeds to only grow perennials. When annuals die the staff recycles them at a local nursery and makes compost, giving nutrients to fill beds with later on.
Perennial flowers constitute the majority of flowers on campus. Not only do they come back yearly, but they save SMU money. Many times extra flowers that aren’t sent to the nursery are given to teachers and staff.
When cold weather hits, tropical flowers are dug up and stored at a local nursery until warmer weather returns.
The landscaping staff is in the process of shifting to native flowers that can withstand the Texas heat and sun. But until that shift is complete, the local nurseries house flowers that need to be planted.
Dillard assures students that no landscaping funds are coming from student fees. And only a percent of funds come from alumni support. Those enormous recycling boxes are what keep SMU’s campus landscaped.
The landscaping staff prides itself in the beauty around campus. Dillard and his team are responsible for the irrigation, the tree work, shrubs and all the flowerbeds. They aren’t responsible, however, for the mowing or any of the athletic fields.
Dillard appreciates encouragement from students. The staff’s landscaping work is something that it is proud of, and it want students to share the pride. To Dillard it’s “not just a program, it actually benefits the university in many ways.”
He added that students should “appreciate it and let the grounds people know” and “respect the hard work they do” and show them that they matter here.
