BELLEFONTE — What began as a discussion at a December Bellefonte Garden Club luncheon became a joint effort between club volunteers, the Centre County Library and Historical Museum and Penn State University to refresh the library’s landscaping and brighten another corner of Bellefonte’s historic downtown Bellefonte.
At the club’s annual luncheon, library friend and Garden Club vice president Ann Sager suggested the club help the Centre County Library revitalize the look of the library’s main entrance with new landscaping.
Centre County Library executive director Lisa Erickson agreed that its main branch, located at the busy intersection of North Allegheny and West Howard streets in Bellefonte, could use a facelift to better reflect the colorful array of programming offered inside and attract even more foot traffic to the almost 80,000 patrons who visited last year.
Sager and Wilda Stanfield, club publicity chairman, took on the challenge and started making phone calls. Rick Grazzini, of Garden Genetics, suggested talking to Dan Stearns, professor of landscape contracting in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State.
“Maybe he would be interested in having a class help with designing a landscape plan for the library,” Grazzini said.
Stearns and Martin McGann, associate professor of landscape contracting, teach the planting design class and like to use real sites for their student projects. They agreed to work with the Garden Club and the library on the project.
Erickson helped Sager and Stanfield assemble the information needed: the architectural plan for the library, photos of the site, dates and ideas and goals. The volunteers met with McGann in January to map out the project, then McGann and his students visited the library Jan. 30 to measure and view the existing landscape.
Four groups of students developed a landscape plan and each group presented its plan Feb. 8 to Erickson and Stanfield on campus. The students got to hear questions and suggestions for their plans. The four then were distilled into one plan and presented to Erickson and Stanfield at the library by McGann and student Fritz Harrison.
With a bequest from one of the club’s former members, the late Lt. Col. Robert Barraclough, the club was able to contract with Brent Potter, of Landscape II, to slightly revise the plan to meet the club’s budget, order the plants and handle the installation. Meanwhile, Sager and Stanfield went shopping for new urns for the entrance.
Wanting something colorful that made a statement, and after enlisting the help of library staff member Jennifer Freed, who made a special trip to Lewisburg to find two matching planters, the library ended up with five beautiful cobalt blue ceramic planting urns that grace the entrance.
Landscape II work crews came in June 10 and the project was finished in time for the public to enjoy the new space for summer. A few other items will be added this fall, with the planting of daffodil bulbs and other perennials. Some of the new plantings, including the new Japanese maple tree by the side windows, will continue to fill in their spaces and will look beautiful from outside and inside the library.
“We are honored and grateful that the Bellefonte Garden Club offered their resources to create such a beautiful oasis at our front door,” Erickson said. “What a lovely reminder of what communities can do when individuals contribute their time, talent and hard work.”
The Bellefonte Garden Club, founded in 1994, continues a tradition of an earlier Bellefonte Garden Club and operates under the umbrella of Historic Bellefonte Inc. The mission of the club is to promote gardening in the community, educate members in gardening and use plants and landscaping to beautify Bellefonte.
For more information, visit www.bellefontegardenclub.org or www.facebook.com/bellefontegardenclub.
