There are approximately 20 separate gardens on campus, not counting the many shrub beds maintained. They are instrumental in creating on campus a sense of place; the idea that this location in the world is unique unto itself, but that it also reflects and respects the larger natural landscape and ecosystem that it inhabits.

The gardens are also important as a teaching tool, used by students and professors in many classes and by the community as a living example of how native, adapted, and drought-tolerant plants can be used in the landscape. All these ideas are prescribed in the campus master plan, which after almost a year and a half of work and collaboration was recently finalized.