Memorial Union hosted Gardening Day, a two-day event transforming the Union Courtyard, April 19 and April 20 as a part of Earth Week.

The event focused on remodeling the small space in the Union, which included removing all plants, remodeling the ground and adding new additions to the space.

“This space has been neglected for a long time and we’ve been trying to figure out what to do with it,” said Becky Bolte, director of the Memorial Student Union. “Today was meant as a community day for clean-up and to make our world beautiful.”

Gardening Days started the process of transforming the outside area into a place of relaxation and fun for students. All students were invited to pitch in and get dirty to remodel the space.

“It’s a tough time for students and it’s hard to find a time to come out and help. Hopefully students will see the impact of gardening here and will have fun,” said Bolte.

The courtyard, which holds additional seating for students in the Union, especially during lunchtime, will be transformed into a zen-like environment with sand and rakes to help students relax.

“Zen is a type of spiritual thing that allows an area itself to be spiritually connected,” said Jarrett Heinson, junior clinical psychology major. “The Zen garden will increase the spirituality around campus.”

In addition to the Zen garden, the remaining space will host small concerts and events for students in the future.

“We have lots of ideas for the rest of the space. We want to completely redo the space and have it as an event space for concerts and relaxing for students,” said Bolte.

Although the space was not fully completed in the two day time frame, Bolte will continue to work on the project with help from student volunteers.

“We’re beginning the stages of redoing the space. Students have had lots of input of what they are looking for. But there are so many grand ideas, we can’t do them all,” said Bolte. “This idea is definitely one we can do right now.”