Alumni House Garden Map
This map of the Alumni House Garden shows the space divided into 13 "beds," lettered in a counterclockwise sequence beginning with the southwest gate. Although each bed is intended to have a distinct character, the hope is that recurrent features in structure and plant selection (such as the repeated use of raised limestone beds, flowering crab trees, yews, Joe Pye weeds, hardy geraniums, and ornamental grasses) will allow visitors to sense a unified design throughout the garden.
Key:
A – Acorn: the seed symbolizing the college
B – Bailey: in honor of the great American horticulturist Liberty Hyde Bailey
C – Crimson: a Coe College color.
D – “Doc” Myers: Coe’s first groundskeeper in the 1880s.
E – Emily: in honor of a gardener’s favorite American poet.
F – Falk: in honor of long-time English Professor Signi Falk; the Falk House, a student residence named in her honor, was situated on A Avenue: close to the location of this garden bed.
G – Gold: another Coe color.
H – Henry: this remains the wildest area of the garden, in honor Henry David Thoreau's reminder that “in wildness is the preservation of the world.”
I – Iowa: a bed with a variety of plants native to the Midwest, including sunflowers, goldenrod, and false indigo.
J – Jekyll: raised beds in honor of the great English gardener, Gertrude Jekyll.
K – Kohawk: a mythical bird native to Coe's campus.
L – Leopold: Iowa native Aldo Leopold’s “land ethic” should be a principle fundamental to all decisions we make within the walls of this garden.
M – Muleshoe: a gardener frequently puttering around in the Alumni House Garden was raised on a farm his father called “The Muleshoe.”
A – Acorn: the seed symbolizing the college
B – Bailey: in honor of the great American horticulturist Liberty Hyde Bailey
C – Crimson: a Coe College color.
D – “Doc” Myers: Coe’s first groundskeeper in the 1880s.
E – Emily: in honor of a gardener’s favorite American poet.
F – Falk: in honor of long-time English Professor Signi Falk; the Falk House, a student residence named in her honor, was situated on A Avenue: close to the location of this garden bed.
G – Gold: another Coe color.
H – Henry: this remains the wildest area of the garden, in honor Henry David Thoreau's reminder that “in wildness is the preservation of the world.”
I – Iowa: a bed with a variety of plants native to the Midwest, including sunflowers, goldenrod, and false indigo.
J – Jekyll: raised beds in honor of the great English gardener, Gertrude Jekyll.
K – Kohawk: a mythical bird native to Coe's campus.
L – Leopold: Iowa native Aldo Leopold’s “land ethic” should be a principle fundamental to all decisions we make within the walls of this garden.
M – Muleshoe: a gardener frequently puttering around in the Alumni House Garden was raised on a farm his father called “The Muleshoe.”