Common Ground
A garden built with reused materials, showing how a small urban space can bring people together.
- Matthew's role
- Planting design, fabrication, and installation
- Place
- Longwood Gardens
- Period
- August 2025–October 2026
- Garden
- 27 by 30 feet
A shared garden built with reused materials
Common Ground explores how a garden made with reused materials can become a place to spend time outside home and work. Within a 27-by-30-foot space, planting and seating offer a shared place to gather.
Matthew developed the planting design, helped fabricate and install the garden, and constructed its two facing benches with Longwood’s woodworking team.
From working plan to installed garden
Two benches face one another to encourage conversation. A granite stone path, repurposed 55-gallon drums, and a custom vertical trellis shape the garden around material reuse and gathering.
Reused materials in the finished garden
The team developed the garden over ten months, presenting to classmates, instructors, Longwood employees, and local landscape-design consultants. They worked with Longwood’s metal, woodworking, paint, soils, and plant-purchasing teams to install the garden in spring 2026.
Roles and collaborators
Matthew worked with classmates Melanie De La Cruz and Rachael Adams in a three-person student team. Melanie’s concept became a built garden through the team’s shared design, fabrication, and installation work.
Credits and collaborators
- Made with
- Longwood Gardens metal, woodworking, paint, soils, and plant-purchasing teams