Photo by Erica Techo.
Rachel Martin
Rachel Martin, a senior at North Carolina State University, is hoping to provide design recommendations and implement improvements at the pollinator area at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.
Rachel Martin said she didn’t enjoy the outdoors as a kid, but those feelings have certainly changed. She is now a horticulture major at North Carolina State University and working as a full-time summer intern at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.
“Something just switched, and once I went off to college and even in high school, just getting more exposed to things like environmental science and eventually horticulture, that [my interests] just turned,” she said.
Throughout her college career, Martin has worked at multiple internships in North Carolina — including work at the North Carolina Arboretum and at Biltmore Estate — but wanted to leave her home state during her senior summer.
“I researched all different internships, and I was really attracted to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens because of their mission statement and their five-year plan and all of the work they were involved in regard to education,” she said.
Martin started at the gardens on May 16 and will continue her internship through Aug. 5. She said she hopes to use her concentration in landscape design and minor in landscape architecture while working at the gardens and plans to focus on the pollinator garden and the Native American interpretive area.
“Since my concentration is in landscape design, I’m looking forward to making some design recommendations,” she said.
Martin’s internship is supported by the Rotary Club of Shades Valley, which holds an annual Botanical Bash to raise money for a salary for the garden intern. This is the seventh year for the RCSV internship, and the Rotary Club’s support makes this internship stand out from past internships, as those have been supported through a fellowship or sponsorship, rather than a Rotary Club’s fundraising, Martin said.
The combination of a focus on education and a focus on garden improvement is also something that makes the Birmingham Botanical Gardens special, Martin said. Her internship at the North Carolina Arboretum focused on environmental education, while her work at Biltmore Estate centered on horticulture.
“It’s sort of combining both of those things,” Martin said. “It’s got the components of education as well as the horticulture focus.”
In the pollinator garden, Martin said she hopes to add native grasses and give the area an overall facelift.
“I’ve got a personal affinity toward the pollinator garden,” she said. “I think pollinators are an essential part of life and an essential part of the gardens, so I would really like to focus my efforts and make that area really attractive to the pollinators and the guests and the visitors.”
Martin also helped during a pollinator-focused education program in early June. Children were able to get involved during the all-day event, and Martin helped them make pollinator homes for their family gardens.
“Children are going to grow up, and I think it’s really important to instill an appreciation and get them introduced to nature and the gardens when they’re young, so they can have that appreciation grow as they get older,” she said.
Many students who attend the botanical gardens’ summer camps end up later serving as counselors for the camps, Martin said, which shows an important influence on the upcoming generation.
As she has worked at the gardens, Martin said seeing visitors take part and enjoy the gardens helps fuel her desire to continue making them beautiful.
“I’m just really excited to be here,” she said. “This is my first time in Alabama and my first time in Birmingham, so I’m really looking forward to spending my summer here in the gardens and exploring the city of Birmingham.”
