Bard College and the Garden Conservancy agree to the rehabilitation project of Blithewood Garden.
The Bard Arboretum
The Bard College campus encompasses 930-acres in the Hudson River Valley, approximately twenty miles north of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the hamlet of Annandale. The campus is comprised of meadows, forests, wetlands, tidal estuary, and a Hudson River tributary, namely the Sawkill Creek. The campus landscape also contains many 200-year-old trees and is part of the 32-mile Hudson River National Historic Landmark District.
The Bard Horticulture Department works under the auspices of Building and Grounds and is responsible for the maintenance of all planted beds, gardens, trees and shrubs on campus grounds. The mission of the horticulture department is to provide a park-like setting that is both enjoyable and safe for all members of the Bard and surrounding communities. In the late 1980's, Bard's landscaping was sparse; lawns and trees dominated the terrain. Few ornamental areas existed, with the notable exception of the formal Blithewood Garden at the Levy Economics Institute. Since the late 1980s, Bard has undertaken more than twenty-five significant landscape additions and renovations, including the maintenance of the 380-acre neighboring property of Montgomery Place. The historic estate includes a working 1929 greenhouse, six formal gardens, fruit orchards, farm and arboretum.
