Notice anything different in front of Hornbake Library? We recently completed a renovation of Frederick Douglass Square. This award-winning landscape design is filled with Maryland native plants, to honor one of Maryland's greatest men, Frederick Douglass. These perennial plants include variegated palm sedge, blue fescue, Walkers Low cat mint, North wind blue switchgrass, and Goldstrum black eyed susans. Learn more about this area here: https://arboretum.umd.edu/frederick-douglass-square

Turning to hobbies can help us cope with stress, alleviate mental health issues, encourage an active lifestyle, and much more. But what if you don’t know what you'd like your hobby to be? 

Although they look like small bird houses, the 5 little nest boxes on the perimeter of the Arboretum Outreach Center gardens are actually trap nest boxes for the spring queens of hornets and yellowjackets.  Research Entomologists Drs.

Cicada Damage Protection Signage - "We have installed netting to help protect this tree from periodical cicada damage." Lawnmower? Chainsaw? Incoming biplane? Space Godzilla vs. Mothra? Nope, that’s just the sound of the periodical cicada singing its little heart out.

The COVID-19 pandemic has helped highlight the importance of walking as a critical aspect of human well-being, not only for transportation and access, but active recreation and exercise.

Did you know that not only is our entire campus a world-renowned arboretum, but that you can also perform your Day of Service with us? On September 11, 2020, Governor Hogan announced that all state employees would be granted administrative leave in order to volunteer.

The University of Maryland’s Community Learning Garden (CLG) was awarded funds from the U.S. Botanic Garden (USBG) and American Public Gardens Association who have partnered to offer support to established urban agriculture and other urban food-growing programs at public gardens affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, $378,000 was awarded to 28 public gardens across the United States to help sustain urban agriculture and community food growing during this challenging time.

Spring 2020 hallmarks a decade of harvests from the University of Maryland Community Learning Garden.

Campus Creek The Campus Creek restoration, completed Nov. 2019, is an environmental restoration project, designed to address stormwater runoff and erosion within the creek.  The project was 10 years in planning, and funded in large part by a MD Dept.

UMD and Cornell Researchers Find as Little as 10 Minutes in Nature Has Measurable Impacts on Mental Health, with a Focus on the Highly Stressed College Student Population Researchers help establish a dosage of nature to prescribe to students to combat growing mental health concerns