Swathmore: https://www.scottarboretum.org/

Swathmore campus is a beautiful college campus which doubles as an arboretum. The class toured the campus taking in the tagging system, the variety of species and the overall organization of the campus.

During our tour we also saw one of the first greenroofs to be placed on a residential building and a variety of water management tactics integrated into the landscaping across campus. Soil treatments could also be seen throughout campus. The highly compacted soils were cored to help aerate them. The cored area would later be retilled to help loosen the soils and create a better environment for the trees.

Between the tour stops and photographing a few of us looked around to find a tree that matched our birth year. I was lucky to find such a beautiful flowering tree!

This tree and the adorable botanical center and greenhouse were possibly two of my favorite surprises of the trip. This space is where volunteers gather to prepare for a day at Swathmore. While there we met with a small group of volunteers assisting with basic garden maintenance in one of the smaller spaces on campus.

Swathmore seems like a lovely place to learn about plants and gardening in the Philadelphia area. I certainly hope to volunteer, if not intern, there in future to learn more.