USF St Petersburg Memorial Garden

• CLIENT USF St Petersburg
• YEAR 2020 to Present
• WE DID Clean-up, Enhancement
• DESCRIPTIONThe USFSP Memorial Garden, also known as the Butterfly Garden, is a beautiful patch of native plants near the Student Center on the corner of 2nd St N and 6th Ave S. Most of this garden is under a large live oak, so was able to showcase shade loving native understory plants. When we were introduced to the garden in December 2020, it was known as the Memorial Garden, and was terribly overgrown, neglected and forgotten. Thankfully, someone from USFSP remembered it and brought in our mentor, Bruce Turley, local native plants advocate of over 40 years and huge sustainability influence in Pinellas County. Bruce brought us in on the project and we did a multi-day clean-up to get the garden back in good shape. In the nearly three years that we have been taking care of the garden, the plants have thrived. Wise Hands has added more beautiful native plants as well as botanical labeling. A former Director of Sustainable Initiatives and Student Government Executive Branch Member coordinated installing bat and owl boxes as well as additional signage to make the garden a visitor friendly learning space.