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The Ernesta Drinker Ballard Memorial Healing Garden exemplifies Temple
University Ambler Landscape Arboretum's three educational tenets: the
historic role of women in horticulture, agriculture and design, the
health benefits of gardens, and the concept of sustainability. This
garden, designed by faculty and students in the Department of Landscape
Architecture and Horticulture (LA-HORT), includes a labyrinth, a
woodland grove, a meadow and a stormwater treatment sequence. The
low-maintenance, low-impact stormwater treatment sequence mitigates
stormwater from the roof of Dixon Hall and overland flow from the
contributing watershed. It replaces a sloping turf area and thicket of
invasive woody plants over which stormwater flowed from a daylighted
drain pipe. The new comprehensive stormwater management techniques
featured in the Healing Garden aim at capturing and infiltrating
stormwater runoff in an aesthetically pleasing design using stone and
native plants.
The stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs) utilized include rain
gardens, a vegetated swale, a constructed wetland and a french drain.
Besides recharging groundwater aquifers by infiltrating stormwater, the
use of myriad native plants helps rid runoff of contaminants, a process
called bio-remediation. Woody plants in the rain gardens include Summersweet, Virginia Sweetspire, and Blueberry. These are white
flowering plants which also compliment the white palette planting theme
of the Healing Garden. Summersweet is also fragrant when in bloom,
another characteristic of a number of plants in the Healing Garden
including the fragrant white flowering Thymes in the labyrinth. Many
plants in the garden were recycled from LA-HORT Department exhibits at
the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's annual Philadelphia
Flower Show competition in 2006, 2007, and 2008. Other plants were purchased
through grants, propagated in the LA-HORT Greenhouse, or donated.
Three rain gardens, a vegetated swale, a wetland and a french drain are
being constructed at the site. This composition of stormwater BMPs
captures run-off primarily from Dixon Hall's roof, but has been designed
to capture stormwater generated during the 10-year storm event. The
project's upper portion consists of the rain gardens and is composed of
mostly sandy soils. High percolation rates were found during a LA-HORT
Soils lab in the spring of 2008. The wetland area found at the end of
the drainage sequence has more clay in the soil and therefore water
drains at a much slower rate. This wetland has been planted with River
Birch and Bald Cypress.
Currently the first of 2 phases in the construction of the Healing
Garden has been completed. Phase 1 consists of a lower path, bridge and
labyrinth. The drainage sequence is still under development. Work to be
completed in Phase II includes more plantings in the rain gardens,
vegetated swale, and wetland, additional grading, the modification of a
weir, and the installation of the upper path and overlook.
The idea for the Healing Garden stemmed from the award-winning entry, "Nature Nurtures — Mind,
Body, Spirit", in the 2006 Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
Flower Show. Subsequently, students in LA-HORT studio classes
conducted a survey to identify a potential site, developed the design,
cleared the site of invasive species, and planted native and woody
species. Over sixty students have been involved to date in some
aspect of the Healing Garden design or construction.
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County:
Montgomery
Watershed:
Wissahickon Creek
Temple University Ambler campus is located at 580 Meetinghouse Road in
Upper Dublin Township and is home to the University's Departments of
Landscape Architecture and Horticulture, and Community and Regional
Planning.
The Healing Garden is located within the campus' 187-acre Landscape
Arboretum and is found across from the Department of Landscape
Architecture and Horticulture greenhouse.
Rose Creek, a tributary to Wissahickon Creek, flows through the campus.
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TVSSI BMPs
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