New medicinal garden

By: Alexis Mitchell
Email – mitchella2@findlay.edu
Twitter – @alexismitch1

Deborah Berlekamp, assistant professor of pharmacy, recently took a trip to Japan with the University and saw something that she thought UF was missing; a medicinal garden.
“I thought, why don’t we have one?” said Berlekamp.
What people might not know is that a lot of schools in the country have medicinal and herb gardens. Ohio Northern is an example. They have campus-wide meetings where students actively participate in the research of the herbs in their gardens. This also inspired Berlekamp to start a garden here in Findlay.
The garden will be located by the Buford center close to where the Japanese garden currently is. The greenhouse that does the landscaping for the University of Findlay, Stratton Greenhouse, will also be contributing the herbs for the garden.
So far there are 25-30 plants picked out to go in the garden. Berlekamp says that picking the plants was definitely a process. She had to look at their maintenance, how much sunlight they need, and just how to take care of them in general.
There will also be benches, arches, a shade tree, signs describing the plants, and a walk way.
Not only will the new medicinal garden be a good place for students to go unwind, but it was designed for research purposes as well. Berlekamp says that pharmaceutical medicine derived from natural things and nature, so she hopes that pharmacy students will be able to see that in the garden.
However, she still invites students, and faculty from all majors to come and enjoy the garden or do research.
“I want it to be a beautiful, peaceful place,” Berlekamp said.
The garden will be started this semester, but the plants will not be planted until the spring. Berlekamp is currently looking for volunteers to help start working on the garden.
If you are interested, contact her at berlekamp@findlay.edu. In the near future Berlekamp will be starting her own herb club as well.