Warren-Wilson College Landscaping Crew

The Landscaping Crew at Warren-Wilson takes care of the 60-acre core of campus, cleaning and beautifying the areas that students, faculty, and visitors live in and walk through all throughout the day, every day. Our work changes with the seasons, focusing on mowing the lawns and weeding the flowerbeds in the summer, raking leaves and planting bulbs in the fall, removing snow and pruning in the winter, and planting and cleaning up the campus in the spring. We have five sub-crews that work within Landscaping that are led by students and generally independent. There is the Rock crew, that maintains and builds the rock walls on campus, the Tree crew that assesses and maintains all of the trees around campus, Flower crew that maintains, implements, and designs flower beds around campus, planting, weeding, edging, and mulching, Grass crew that propagates, plants, and maintains native flowers and grasses, and Tractor crew that upkeeps and operates our three tractors. Each sub- crew has it’s own page and pictures, if you want to learn more about what they do specifically. The crew has about 50 students, and two supervisors, Tom LaMuraglia and Bruce Willever, with one volunteer named Mel Seifert. He and his wife recently retired after working 29 years at Sheldon-Jackson College in Sitka, Alaska, and are volunteering at Warren Wilson College full time. Our home is a small 10 by 12 foot office between Bryson Gym and Saint Clair Guest House in the center of campus. Our work varies, from maintaining the two large athletic fields to building fences and drainage ditches, using our tractors to create landscape able areas and assist construction around campus. We concentrate efforts on a few areas like the formal gardens, with rigorous planting and floral designs. We also maintain paths, drains, lawns, signs, and anything that touches the ground. Working in all weather conditions, on call for hurricanes, tree-removal and snow early in the morning we are a crew that likes getting dirty and having fun. Donned in our uniforms of dirt-colored Carharts or jeans and black sweatshirts we will always be found, outside, mud on our hands and smiles on our faces.

Sub-Crews

Rock Crew Tree Crew Tractor crew

Mow Crew Flower And Design Crew Grass Crew

Tom and Bruce

Rock Crew

Landscaping’s Rock Crew is responsible for maintenance of the college’s existing stone walls and construction of new stone structures. In the past the Rock Crew has built stone steps, mortared and dry stone walls, flagstone patios, drystone drains, as well as numerous wall repairs. This semester we have been working on a series of projects around the College Relations and Admissions building including a dry stack wall, a mortared wall, two dry-stone drains, and an extension of a flagstone patio. We have also done two major stone wall repairs and we are restoring a drystone retaining wall built in 1908 by students and staff of the college.

More Pictures

Tree Crew

The tree crew is responsible for maintaining the large and small trees on core campus. To carry out these responsibilities the crew is trained in technical tree climbing and advanced chain sawing. This semester we have been working on preparing the site for the new dorm, regular tree maintenance, and training the three new members that joined our crew.

More pictures

Tractor Crew

The tractor crew, another sub-crew of Warren-Wilson college Lanscaping is responsible for the maintenance and operation of the machines that we use. These include a Backhoe tractor,which is used for digging trenches, transporting and loading materials, grading, and many other tasks. Our New Holland has Various PTO attatchments used for mowing, aerating, and plowing. The propane-powerered Ventrac is one of our most stable and versatile machines which we use for mowing, aerating, snow removal and seeding. We maintain the machines daily and take great pride in the work that we do with them.

Yael on the prowl with the plow

Mow Crew

The Mow Crew of Warren Wilson Landscaping is responsible for the basic upkeep and maintenace of the soccer fields, and the beautiful grasslands that surround us here on campus. All of our mowers have been converted to propane power and we use newer generation, low-emmission weed-eaters to reduce damage to the environment. In the near future we will have 3 zero turn radius mowers, to go along with our 16 inch Walk-behind mower, which will all be propane-powered.

Flower and Design Crew

The flower and design crew at Warren Wilson maintains existing beds and landscapes throughout campus in addition to designing landscapes for new buildings and older buildings following construction or repairs. We select, order, and plant primarily species native to the area and work closely with many local nurseries. We maintain and design the formal garden in central campus and plant thousands of flower bulbs every fall. Currently, we are finishing up fall planting at the new College Relations building, Ransom House, and Sage dorm. We have spent the last few weeks planting trees, shrubs, and bulbs. We will finish up with a few additional shrubs, perennials, and annuals in the spring. The winter months will be finalizing new designs for the lower formal gardens, St. Clair Guest House, and Dorland dorm. We will most likely begin designing and planting landscapes at the new dorms within the next few months.

Grass Crew

Why We Do What We Do: The Landscaping Grass Crew

Landscaping with native plants has many purposes and benefits. The plants are already adapted to grow and thrive in this area of the Swannanoa Valley and so they need little maintenance once they have been established. Native grasses and wildflowers also provide forage material for wildlife, like birds, which are dependent upon native plants for their food and for cover. Although non-native plants will grow in the landscape, they may not necessarily benefit the insect or animal population. Some non-native plants can even become invasive and out-compete native plants. Some examples of invasive species include stands of Kudzu and Oriental Bittersweet that bring more exotic species to the area; the Warren Wilson Landscaping crew has incorporated the use of native plants in the campus landscape. Native Grasses are a great bunch to work with. The best thing about them-they don’t have to be mowed. Most native grasses that our crew works with are warm season perennial grasses. They are managed through burning and manual weeding in the first stages of establishment. Once a grass stand is established, it can be maintained with little effort. There are many spaces around campus that are huge expanses of lawn which need constant mowing, fertilizing, and upkeep that involves time, energy, money, and resources such as gas. One long-term goal of the Native grass crew is to slowly develop these areas into No-Mow lawns. Areas that are not utilized by the campus for recreation or other purposes can easily be turned into native prairie landscapes. Other goals of the Grass crew include providing opportunities for the campus to become educated about native plants and wildlife. Many of our planting sites are used by classes for the identification and collection of bugs, plants, soil, and studying other topics of academic interest. The WWC Grass crew was initiated in 1998 by the USDA, which contracted the Warren Wilson College Landscaping Crew to identify and grow native plants for the Forest Service. The Grass Crew still grows plants for off-campus contracts and outside purchases, but is now focusing on what we can do for the campus.