Jump to main content

Landscaping and Grounds

landscaping crew back in the day

Landscaping & Grounds Department's mission is to maintain a diverse, sustainable, and healthy landscape, and to provide quality turf for athletic programs and the campus.  Our Mission is characterized by providing the university community with campus aesthetics and passive recreation, safety, plant health & preservation, and water conservation.

The Vision of the Landscaping & Grounds Department is to maintain a diverse and healthy landscape on the Greeley campus and to provide quality turf for athletic programs, and the campus. Our Mission is characterized by the following: 

  • Campus Flowers

    Every year these are about 16,000 flowers planted in 33 locations around campus.  Of those 33 locations, 16 have been adopted by Students, Student Groups, and faculty and staff of the university. The Adopt–A-Spot program allows the university to add more color to the campus.  Over the past three years, the university has begun to incorporate some drought-tolerant perennials into these flower plantings to help reduce costs as well as reduce water usage.  Those flowers that are not adopted  are planted and maintained by our student flower crew.

  • Aesthetics and Passive Recreation

    We strive to provide a quality campus setting that can be enjoyed by all and it is our    
    desire that visitors to our campus will experience the beauty of our campus, especially our Xeric Demonstration Garden, which is part of our mission to encourage and promote water conservation.  We currently maintain and promote our Xeric Garden and we foster
    its use for education and enjoyment. We also strive to educate the UNC community in the proper care of our trees and to discourage littering, vandalism and damage to our campus landscape.

  • Safety

    It is also our mission to provide a campus environment that does not pose a risk to the UNC community and we strive to remedy and/or remove any potential hazards on the campus grounds. We strive to maintain our sports turf fields in a manner that promotes good and safe playing conditions.  

  • Plant Health and Preservation

    We strive for a diverse population of trees and ornamental plantings in order to assist in educating the UNC community of  proper plant selection and arrangement in the landscape. A diverse landscape promotes a healthy campus by discouraging insect infestations disease. Plant diversity enhances our mission of Integrated Pest Management. It is also our mission to promote plant health by performing proper maintenance practices that include proper watering, fertilization, pesticide application and pruning and to serve as the standard for professional horticultural practices for the Greeley community at large. It is our goal to preserve our campus heritage by encouraging tree protection prior to and during construction.

  • Water Conservation

     UNC is located in a semi-arid climate, only receiving annual precipitation of 12 inches. This region has and will continue to experience multi-year droughts, and it is our responsibility to develop long term strategies that will enhance water conservation in our local and perhaps State-wide water conservation efforts. These strategies must include water budgeting, and incorporating innovative irrigation technologies, increased use of xeric landscapes on the campus and education on water conservation in the landscape.