As the Calvin Ecosystem Preserve celebrates its 40th year, ground has broken on its newest addition; a rock garden will now mark the entrance to the Preserve by the East Beltline.
Ground broke on the rock garden during Calvin’s 150th anniversary homecoming weekend. Since then, progress is being made towards the goal of completing the garden by Thanksgiving 2025, according to Jamie Skillen, professor of environmental studies in the department of geology, geography and environment and director of the Calvin Ecosystem Preserve and Native Gardens.
The garden, made possible by a donation from Thelma Venema, will showcase rocks from around the region in a display that is immersive, educational and beautiful as the “gateway to the Preserve,” according to Skillen.
Featured at the center of the largest display area of the garden will be a rare puddingstone, Skillen shared. The 16,000 lb puddingstone was delivered to the Preserve in the spring.
“Puddingstone is a well-known but kind of rare rock here in the lower peninsula,” said Kent Ratajeski, a lecturer in the department of geology, geography and environment, and director of the Bruce Dice Mineralogical Museum at Calvin University. As a jasper conglomerate, puddingstone is speckled with red jasper inclusions, resembling a bowl of pudding. “It can be found throughout Michigan’s lower peninsula, but it came down from Ontario originally,” said Ratajeski. Forming 2.3 billion years ago, eventually “it hitched a ride on the glaciers before it was deposited here in Michigan.”
The puddingstone is already making waves, according to Ratajeski. After posting a photo of the rock on Facebook, Ratajeski found out that one person had driven over 2 hours just to come see it in person.
Other rocks featured in the garden will include fieldstones, sandstones and limestones from across the region.
For Calvin’s geology classes, the garden will offer an important educational resource, enabling students to work with larger boulders than can be found inside the classroom. These larger stones are able to showcase more complex features such as bedding or layering and “show structures at larger scales that you can’t see in smaller scale specimens,” said Ratajeski.
As well as benefiting geology students, the rock garden will also appeal to some of the Preserve’s younger visitors. In contrast to the other native gardens in the Preserve and across campus, which contain sensitive plants that are prone to damage when trampled on, according to Skillen, the rock garden will host plants that can stand up to that kind of use. “This whole garden is kind of fair game for kids to climb on, and it’s going to be a jungle gym,” said Skillen. It will be “much more immersive for kids to play in, on and around,” he continued.
A second rock garden is in the planning stage to be installed on the west side of North Hall. Currently, the site hosts boulders collected by Calvin professors over the years, where the new garden would help to formalize the outdoor collection.
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