21 December 2009

A School with A View: A Walk Around IPC Garden

By Shirley Ghozalli. Edited by Neil Hawes.

IPC Gardening Team members, Phill Kelly and Stephanie (Steph) Barrell	A view towards IPC Administration building	Summer blooms surrounding the stone monument in front of the administration building
Flowering plants around the dining hall	The swirling shrub arrangement near IPC library	The blooming Pansy, also in front of the administration building

Everyone who enters the IPC Campus will be welcomed with the neatly arranged boulevard, walkways, and greens surrounding the buildings, particularly, the flowering plants with their rainbow of colours all around the year.

The view is quite different compared to the one in 1990 when the campus has just been established. The land where IPC Campus is located was originally farmland with grassy hills and was bare of trees.

Designed by the Landscape Architects, David M. Irvine & Associates, the IPC campus ground features a sakura/cherry blossom boulevard, 3 man-made lakes, an anchor-shaped ground plan, strategically placed lightings and drainage, small courtyards between buildings as well as in the middle of each hall of residence, and various carefully selected plants giving layers to the view.

In charge with the garden is IPC Gardening Team, with its 4 members. Among them are 2 full-time staff members, Phill Kelly and Stephanie (Steph) Barrell. They are responsible for the planning, ordering, nursing, planting, maintaining and pruning the plants around the campus. According to Phill, a gardener must know the height and size of each plant she/he is going to use. This knowledge is important so that a design concept or a sketch could be made of how the arrangement would look like when the plants have fully grown, or bloomed. Steph commented "We tried to time the flowering plants so they will bloom at special times like Sakura Festival, Commencement, and Graduation Ceremonies." From time to time, Phill takes small group of visitors on a tour around the campus, which can certainly stimulate a deeper feeling of appreciation of the visitors for the gardens at IPC.

Next year, Phill and Steph are planning to plant some more native trees such as pohutukawa, totara and rimu. These trees will attract more birds to come and grace the campus with their songs. Planting some more flowering plants around the Rec Centre car park, Dining Hall and in front of the Senior Common Room is also on the team's list. However, their higher goal is that to have IPC Garden assessed and listed in the New Zealand Gardens Trust website. Established by the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture, the New Zealand Gardens Trust assesses public and private gardens in New Zealand and then list and grade them for public visit.

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