Questions & Answers

Virginia Colarusso of University Facilities does most of the gardening and watering on the North Campus. She's been working at UB for 17 years.

How do you manage to take care of such a large campus? How many gardens does your department maintain?
We have 26 gardens and 26 flower barrels. We have the greatest student help – they get an assignment and do it without hesitation.

Who helps you care for UB's gardens?
Lynn and Jacki Shellum and Mike Krug (all student assistants) – these three people are the best help I've ever had.

What's the biggest challenge to keeping UB weeded and watered?
The immense size of the campus. The hardest part of the job is keeping the weeds out.

Who plans what flowers, shrubs, trees go where? Do you have a favorite flower?
My bosses, Gary Nielsen and Bill Marshall, plan for trees and shrubs. I do mostly flowers – we have perennials, annuals and bulbs in our gardens. My favorite is impatiens.

How often do you do the watering?
It all depends on how much rain we get. In dry weather, it is almost every day. The flower containers need to be watered more often than the gardens.

There are lots of animals on campus – are they a problem? What, if anything, do you do to discourage them?
Woodchucks, rabbits and mice are a problem. The woodchucks eat plants above and below ground, rabbits eat plants above ground and mice eat plants below ground. We use "Have A Heart " traps and move them to Ellicott Woods.

What's the most unusual thing that has happened while planting, watering etc.?
While watering at the Center for Tomorrow, I found, under an iris plant, a nest of three baby bunnies.

Do people ask you a lot of questions about gardening?
Yes, people do ask a lot of questions. The most frequent one is, "Will you come to my house and do my yard?"

Has UB's environmental policy on going back to natural grassland reduced your workload?
Not directly, but it does free up time to do more pruning and trimming.

There's a national trend to planting wildflowers on university campuses – any plans to do that here?
At the East Lake (LaSalle) there's a large spot of wild flowers that were put in years ago.

Do you have a garden at home? Big one? Vegetables? Flowers?
Yes, at home I have several gardens. Mostly flowers. I do have a shade garden, which is my favorite.

What's something people don't know about you and should?
I survive winter by knowing that in the spring, I can tend to the flowers.