Environmental Sustainability Committee (ELESC)

In 2023, the Emory Libraries Environmental Sustainability Committee (ELESC) chose to work on an initiative to enhance the area in front of the Woodruff Library by requesting planting of a "pollinator garden" - plants that provide food and/or egg-laying habitat for butterflies, bees, and other pollinators such as hummingbirds.  By doing so, we hoped to show how the Woodruff Library grounds, as an example, could help with the serious problems of declining populations of some of these pollinators, due in part to urbanization.  In addition, as we researched plant varieties, we identified a number of Georgia native species, and noted that information about some of them indicated historical use by Native American indigenous peoples.  We preferred these species for their environmental suitability and educational value. Exterior Services at Emory and its Manager, Jimmy Powell, were supportive of our plans. 

We made a grant proposal, "Library Landscape Pilot" to Office of Sustainability Initiatives for 2023-24 to offset some of the costs, and funding was approved.

We hope this is just a start, and with the knowledge we gain from the pilot, we can make recommendations for other exterior areas for Woodruff and other libraries.
 
The first planting was made April 18, 2024 - 67 plants!  Emory Environmental Services Grounds crew did most of the planting.  
 


Diagrams of Planting Areas (linked below) is a guide to what was planted and includes photos of the varieties for ientification.  A few that we requested weren't available in April but may come in later.  Some should be blooming in summer, others in spring or autumn. 

A few of the interesting selections:  

Purple Giant Hyssop, Agastache scrophulariifolia, a native to Georgia, rare and considered "critically imperilled" (Georgia Biodiversity Portal article).  If it grows well, we may see large spikes of flowers in late summer/early fall. attracting bees, butterflies, flies and sometimes birds eat the fruit.  Planted in the inclined area to the left of the left entrance.

Obedient plant (Physostegia virginiana). A native Georgia plant in the Mint family.  "Obedient Plant attracts hummingbirds and butterflies. The name “obedient plant” is derived from the way an individual flower can be swiveled back and forth on its axis, then stays in the position in which it is placed." (University of Georgia Extension, Native plants for Georgia III - Wildflowers").  Planted in the area to the left of the library entrances.

A student brought to our attention a patch of Yellowroot which had been unintentionally removed.  Yellowroot (Xanthorhiza simplicissima) is not only a southeastern/Georgia native species, but a plant known to have been used medicinally by indigenous peoples in this area.  A few shoots are making a comeback in the planter between the entrances to the Library; we will make room for it and plant more if needed.   

Image courtesy of Stephanie Brundage, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

After our plantings establish themselves, we hope to share more information about plants used by Native Americans in the area - those that we planted or some that are already there.  

This is a "pilot project" so we are learning more about the plants, the site, and how to go about enhancing the landscape as we go along.  We hope to use this to develop more plans and recommendations in concert with Exterior Services for this library, and perhaps other libraries on campus, and will share our report and experience.

We'll share more information as the project progresses.  Please feel free to contact us with any questions or observations you have about our garden!