Temple University Ambler Sustainable Campus Map

Temple's Ambler Campus contains a multitude of different gardens intended for both research and enjoyment.

Click on the links in the descriptions to zoom to each garden's location. As you zoom in, labels for each garden and building will reveal themselves.

 Zoom to Greenhouse 

Constructed in 2000, our Main Greenhouse features 3,700 square feet of climate-controlled growing space for various projects, including faculty and student research, class projects, and plant forcing for our annual display at the Philadelphia Flower Show. This space also houses a large percentage of our permanent teaching and research plant collection. Learn more about the Greenhouse  here .

 Zoom to Research Garden 

This 1-acre fenced area has been home to many different staff, faculty, and student projects. The Research Garden also contains our newly planted fruit tree orchard, featuring apples, plums, and pears. There are also rows of thornless blackberries and ever-bearing red raspberries.

 Zoom to Food Crops Garden 

The John Paul Endicott Memorial Food Crops Garden is used every year during the Spring Semester with students in the Food Crops I class who design, plan, and execute a planting schedule for this vegetable garden. Over the summer months, there is an internship program in which students maintain the garden and harvest its crops. All produce grown in this garden is donated to local food cupboards. In the 2017 season, over 1,000 pounds of fresh produce was donated.

 Zoom to Conifer Garden 

This teaching garden, located in the Greenhouse Education and Research Complex, includes exquisite dwarf conifer cultivars. Adding to the special nature of this collection, the garden is surrounded by full-sized examples of some of the dwarf conifers found within, giving a unique opportunity for visitors and students alike to compare options for uses in various landscape situations.

 Zoom to Healing Garden 

The Ernesta Ballard Healing Garden honors a pioneering woman in horticulture, alumnus Ernesta Ballard. It features a central labyrinth and rain garden. The garden provides opportunities for students, faculty, researchers, and the public to see comprehensive stormwater management techniques that aim at capturing and infiltrating stormwater run-off in an aesthetically pleasing design using stone and native plants. A variety of plants help rid the run-off of any contaminants.

 Zoom to Climate Garden 

 Zoom to Winter Garden 

The Winter Garden was designed as a teaching garden space to highlight plants with seasonal interest in the fall, winter and early spring months.

 Zoom to Fisher Garden 

In the Louise Stein Fisher Garden, raised beds showcase dwarf evergreens and a Japanese maple in this intimate space, dedicated in 1971 to Louise Stein Fisher, an alumnus and the former Dean of Women. Plans are underway for the Louise Stein Fisher Garden to become a fragrance garden.

 Zoom to Woodland Garden 

Although it creates the illusion of a flourishing natural woodland, the Woodland Garden was one of the first planted gardens in the Arboretum, created by students and staff in the 1920s. It was deliberately designed to evoke the atmosphere of an untamed grove, and has been enhanced over decades by the addition of masses of spring bulbs and native wildflowers.

 Zoom to Bright Memorial Pavilion 

 Zoom to Formal Perennial Garden 

This living classroom highlights modern horticulture techniques and showcases new perennial plant selections, and is a place for teaching design principles and maintenance techniques.

 Zoom to Formal Native Garden 

Composed primarily of plants native to the Mid-Atlantic region, the Formal Native Plant Garden was redesigned in 1995 to showcase plants well-adapted for this climate in a formal design. An example of ecologically sound planning —a way to design with plants that perform well with minimal use of chemicals or irrigation —the use of native plants also encourages biodiversity, restoring natural habitats for both plants and animals.

 Zoom to Ground Cover Garden 

The Ground Cover Garden was designed with sustainability in mind. This garden demonstrates “green mulch,” using plants to help keep moisture in and weeds out of a garden.

 Zoom to Waterwise Garden 

 Zoom to Vine Display 

 Zoom to Herb Garden 

The Viola Anders Herb Garden, built by students and faculty in 1992, displays a collection of culinary, dye, aromatic and medicinal herbs.

 Zoom to Visitor Center Garden Beds 

The rectangular structures you see above are cold frames. These were used to extend the growing season of the many crops the students in the Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women grew. Now these historic cold frame structures display ornamental examples of common agricultural crops. The large bed along the path through the center of campus features a testing plot for plants under consideration for use in the Arboretum. We trial these plants for hardiness, displaying potential, duration and deer preference.

 Zoom to Sustainable Wetland Garden 

This award-winning Sustainable Wetland Garden, located near Widener Hall, is a working demonstration of sustainable principles and management. Sustainable elements include recycled-glass pavers, biological filtration of campus storm water runoff, and native plant communities. The garden is entirely made of native species and comprises several diverse habitats. The wetland portion functions as a bio-filter —the vegetation and microorganisms filter out pollution that is generated from the surrounding buildings.

 Zoom to Pinetum 

 Zoom to Oak Canopy 

 Zoom to Maple Canopy 

The EPA describes bioretention basins as "landscaped depressions that treat on-site stormwater discharge from impervious surfaces such as roofs, driveways, sidewalks, parking lots, and compacted lawns." Temple Ambler showcases three of these basins, which hold and filter stormwater to limit flooding and contamination, located adjacent to the  Ambler Learning Center ,  Research Array , and  Recreation Fields .

Temple Ambler's  Greenhouse  Complex has the capability to capture and store rainwater from the 6,600 square feet of roof surface on the Greenhouse and Headhouse buildings. This water is stored in two underground cisterns with a combined holding capacity of 12,000 gallons and can be pumped into the Greenhouse for plant irrigation.

Located atop the Intercollegiate Athletics Field House, the  PECO Green Roof Garden  is a biological community of plants and micro-organisms that provide an environmentally sound alternative to a traditional roof system. Green roofs utilize growing plants on rooftops, essentially replacing the vegetation that has been removed by the building construction. The Green Roof includes a variety of succulents and drought-tolerant plants. The purpose of the PECO Green Roof Garden is to educate students and visitors (including developers, municipal officials, and community residents) about this environmentally friendly alternative to traditional roofing systems that is believed to provide greater energy efficiency, improved stormwater management, and reduction of pollutants in rainwater coming off the roof.

Water fountains and bottle refilling stations are conveniently placed throughout Temple Ambler's campus to minimize the use of single-use plastic bottles.

Water bottle refilling stations can be found throughout Ambler Campus buildings:

 Ambler Learning Center 

Ambler Research and Collaboration  Building 

 Bright Hall 

 Dixon Hall 

The Arboretum uses their own natural resources to create the mulch used in their garden beds. These resources can include anything from pine straw to sweet gum balls to leaves. The Arboretum also creates green mulch from plant material.

Vegetative waste collected from campus staff kitchens and the Arboretum and grounds maintenance department is composted on-site.