Growing with the Library
Visit our flower and vegetable gardens, then check out seeds to start your own! Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD) offers a large selection of digital and physical books, in addition to programs and classes, for both newcomers and experienced gardeners seeking to develop their skills and know-how. But, did you know that PPLD is home to several gardens and seed libraries that you can visit across El Paso County?
Carnegie Garden The Carnegie Garden is located between two historic buildings of the Penrose Library Campus in downtown Colorado Springs: the 1905 Carnegie Library and the 1928 Knights of Columbus Hall. Once a parking lot, the Garden is now home to a demonstration garden and a lawn that is perfect for public functions and outdoor gatherings. Designed by landscape architect Carla Anderson, the Garden opened in 2007.
“I wanted to make sure we paid homage to our native shortgrassed prairie, so there are a lot of grasses that honor that,” says Anderson. “It’s a Plant Select garden, a program by Denver Botanic Gardens and Colorado State University. They select a variety of shrubs, perennials, and grasses and make those selected plants available. Then we report back about what did well, what had problems.” The Garden has changed quite a bit since it opened 13 years ago and will continue to do so. “It’s amazing to me how much it’s grown. It’s very much a Darwinian garden in that we plant things, and what grew and thrived deserved to be there. What didn’t survive got yanked out,” says Anderson. “A garden is a process; it’s not an end product. It’s four-dimensional art. You’ve got the three basic spatial dimensions, and then you have time.”
“The Carnegie had just been renovated, and somebody came to a master gardener meeting and said, ‘Here’s a beautiful building that needs a landscape,’” recalls Anderson. “So I said, ‘Here’s my opportunity to volunteer in the community.’” Anderson took a look at the space and was interested in the location’s unique microclimate.
Penrose Community Garden
“It’s on that southern slope. And it’s surrounded by hard surfaces: walls on three sides and the pavement below, so it gets a lot of heat,” explains Anderson. “For me landscape architecture is all about problem solving, taking a challenge and finding a solution to that.” Terracing the Garden solved one problem: the slope between the Carnegie Library and the wall below. It also made it easier to view the plants selected for the low-water demonstration garden.
Penrose Community Garden
Carnegie Garden
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The Penrose Community Garden includes a pollinator garden bed that is located along Pikes Peak Avenue, outside of Penrose Library. The garden focuses on intergenerational programming and is used as a learning tool incorporating specific gardening techniques. In past years, the PPLD Green Team managed the garden and planted and harvested vegetables for use at Catholic Charities' Marian House. Garden markers were made from recycled ceramic tiles at one of the Library’s makerspaces. Penrose Library staff are making plans to implement new programming when the garden reopens in Spring 2022.
