Gettin’ Dirty with the BG: First-Year Students Explore the Botanic Garden

On Monday, Sept. 25, the botanic garden hosted an hour-long event called “Gettin’ Dirty with the BG,” facilitated by Senior Laboratory Instructor Gaby Immerman. Twelve first-year students had the opportunity to take a tour of the gardens, learning about both the indoor and outdoor spaces, before participating in a quick workshop about how to propagate plant clippings. In a few weeks, the students will have their very own house plant to take back to their dorms. 

“What I love about teaching plants–and this [event] is just a taste of that–is that most people haven't even thought about most of the things that I get to share with them, so it’s just really fun to watch their eyes popping,” Immerman said. “I really feel like with plants humans have just gotten separated from this knowledge, and that my job is to reconnect you with knowledge you already have.”

Rheva Wolf ‘28 echoed similar thoughts while reflecting on the event. 

“I was really proud of myself when I knew what the plants were, it made me really happy,” Wolf said. “It’s kind of a big part of why I came to Smith; I spent a lot of time in the plant house when I came up to visit and it was just such a nice feeling.” 

Wanting to get more involved with the botanic garden, and plants in general, was a sentiment shared among many of the students. Ira Nathan ‘28 found the event very informative for someone looking to gather more knowledge about taking care of plants. 

“I’ve been wanting to learn about plant care for a really long time, so I’m just trying to seek out ways to [do that]” Nathan said. “Because all of the plants I have die, and I would love to be a plant person!” 

Immerman encourages all students to tune in to the botanic garden through whatever avenue suits them best–whether that be subscribing to the newsletter, taking a class, or trying out an internship. 

“I would love it if every single Smith student’s experience was impacted in some way by the botanic garden. I have maximalist ambitions for making every student at Smith have their life be richer,” Immerman said. “And honestly, we’re already doing that because just moving around on this campus, you’re experiencing the amazing magic of living in a botanic garden.”