The Kellogg Library is surrounded by examples of drought-tolerant plants, a technique well-suited to our hot dry summers. The use of rocks and gravelled areas, and the selection of dry climate plants is called Xeriscaping. Plants were selected so that their flowering times alternated in ways that provided blooms of varying colors and shapes, which adds to the pleasing design of the Kellogg Library environment.

The covering on the ground where there is no rock or gravel may look like shredded bark and pieces of wood - that's because it is! The mulch you see comes from the trimmings of our shubbery and trees on campus. Larger branches are put through a large machine that chops them up into mulch. When mulch is spread on bare ground, water is more efficiently retained to be utilized by the plants rather than escaping into the air by evaporation. Mulch also serves as a weed suppressant, and makes it not so muddy to walk on after a rain, and also helps prevent erosion during a hard downpour. Mulch looks better than mud or dirt, and also very slowly, allows the nutrients locked in the pieces of wood to be broken down into organic chemicals that can enrich the soil. Read that paragraph again... How many ways can you find that mulch helps the environment?