Autumn ’28 was assigned groundskeeping for her first work position at Berea, which caused the first-year student a little doubt. She did not believe she was capable of the manual labor the job would entail, but she immediately found joy in her job.
Throughout her first year, Autumn learned about pruning and planting trees and maintaining the campus with urban forestry. The summer before her sophomore year, she stayed on campus and had the opportunity to design the landscaping for the newest campus building. With a pen, paper, a budget and a lot of nerves, Autumn began to design the green space for the house she had seen under construction for her entire time in Berea.
“The task seemed daunting because I had never been in charge of a project like this,” she said. “It was bigger than any task I had ever undertaken.”
Autumn had spent a lot of time working in her mother’s garden back home. “I helped maintain the garden, but it wasn’t mine. It was my mom’s, and I was almost like a sibling to the garden. The Best- Evans House landscaping was my baby.”
Groundskeeping and majoring in studio art might not seem to have many things in common, but for Autumn, this project allowed her to combine her two passions. “Instead of using paint, pencils and paper as my medium, I am now using flowers as my way to send a message. It was fun to pick out a lot of Kentucky native species, such as four different species of goldenrod, blue star junipers, Shasta daisies, ruby slipper hydrangeas, magnolia and holly trees, holly shrubs, lambs ear, cat mint, rattlesnake master and my personal favorite lavender.”
Her studio art major was not completely ignored during this process. She painted a bear on a rock outside the house, which has led to other inquiries for her artwork to be displayed on campus. “I look at the bear that I named Navy as my signature to my work at the house.”
Autumn also learned the value of working with a team. When designing the entire landscaping around the house seemed like a daunting task, Autumn was surrounded by people, like her labor supervisor, who supported her throughout the entire process. Weeks of planning the landscaping culminated when Autumn purchased all the plants from different local nurseries.
“When I got to the house with all the plants, my plans didn’t line up with the vision I had in my head for the property. One of my team members suggested moving everything over by half a foot. Without that suggestion, the property wouldn’t have turned out the way I wanted.”
Autumn humbly does not take ownership for her work at the Best-Evans House. “It belongs to whomever is currently in residence at the house or whomever is seeing to the day-to-day maintenance.”
