Honey Locust Garden

The Hon­ey Locust Gar­den was Massasoit’s first Sus­tain­able Land­scape, and was installed in the fall of 2008 by an Intro­duc­tion to Biol­o­gy class.  Before the project, the bed had a hon­ey locust tree (Gled­it­sia tri­a­can­thos), a few non-native shrubs and flow­ers, and lawn.  The stu­dents assessed the sus­tain­abil­i­ty of the exist­ing site and decid­ed they want­ed to remove every­thing except the tree.  Under the tree they chose plants that pre­fer dry shade, and in the remain­der of the bed they plant­ed sun-lov­ing prairie plants. The stu­dents also chose to plant a diverse selec­tion of plants in a nat­u­ral­is­tic design, so that the gar­den could grow and change with less main­te­nance over the year. In 2011, oak­leaf hydrangeas were plant­ed in mem­o­ry of Lois Mar­tin, a long-time fac­ul­ty mem­ber in the Math Department.

The fol­low­ing plants are in the Hon­ey Locust Garden: 

Shrubs

• Black choke­ber­ry (Pho­tinia melanocarpa)
• Oak­leaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quer­ci­fo­lia)
• Flow­er­ing rasp­ber­ry (Rubus odor­a­tus)
• Drop­ping leu­cothoe (Leu­cothoe fontane­siana)

Grass­es and Grass-Like Plants

• Big bluestem (Andro­pogon ger­ardii)
• Appalachi­an sedge (Carex appalachi­ca)
• Switch­grass (Pan­icum vir­ga­tum)
• Lit­tle bluestem (Schizachyri­um sco­par­i­um)
• Arc­tic reed­grass (Cala­m­a­grostis coarc­ta­ta)

Wild­flow­ers

• But­ter­fly milk­weed (Ascle­pias tuberosa)
• New Eng­land Aster (Sym­photrichum novi-angli­ae)
• New York aster (Aster novi-bel­gii)
• Flat-topped aster (Doellinge­ria umbel­latu umbel­la­ta)
• Smooth vio­let prairie aster (Sym­photrichum tur­binel­lum)
• Pur­ple cone­flower (Echi­nacea pur­purea)
• Wild gera­ni­um (Gera­ni­um mac­u­la­tum)
• Dwarf-crest­ed iris (Iris crista­ta)
• Wild blue phlox (Phlox divar­i­ca­ta)
• Black-eyed Susan (Rud­beck­ia hir­ta)
• Foam­flower (Tiarel­la cordi­fo­lia)
• Bar­ren straw­ber­ry (Wald­steinia fra­gar­i­oides)
• Bleed­ing heart (Dicen­tra eximia)