Gardening is not a spectator sport. Imagine erecting bleachers around the perimeter of the yard, selling tickets, and serving popcorn, peanuts and even Cracker Jack.

Think there are lots of fights at hockey games? Imagine fans yelling derisive suggestions to hot, sweaty gardeners as they struggle to weed, mulch, divide or transplant. The bench would clear before the first bell.

Maybe that scenario is a bit of a stretch, but when I learned about an intramural gardening program at Purdue Calumet, it was what I envisioned. The program began two years ago when Matt Dudzik, sports coordinator in the department of intramural sports at PUC decided it would fit well with the campus program. Participants potted up ornamentals in large concrete planters on campus, and Dudzik invited me to judge along with John Bachmann and Mark Penman of the PUC grounds department.

I looked up intramural, a term I'd heard often enough but never really understood. According to Wikipedia, intramural sports or intramurals are recreational sports organized within a set geographic area. Taken from the Latin "intro muros," it literally means "within walls" and originally designated those sports matches and contests that took place among teams from within the walls of an ancient city.

Eventually it has come to mean competition within an educational setting, differentiating it from varsity sports, which are played with teams from other cities and towns.

Out of the six containers entered in the competition the individual first place award went to student Constance Matusiak. Constance's container is the second one from the street in front of the Challenger Learning Center. The overall winner was a container planted by The Counseling Center, and it's located on the left side next to the West Gyte Annex doors.

Dudzik was grateful to the entire PUC grounds crew for not only helping to make the event a success but also for the great job they do making this campus look great. And it does.

Meanwhile, garden lovers made their pilgrimage through seven Porter County gardens last Saturday during the Porter County Master Gardeners Association's annual garden walk. Garden walks are a great way to learn which plants do well in our climate and to make some new discoveries.

Sometimes a plant will invite serious head-scratching and brain-wracking by even the most knowledgeable nomenclature nerds. One such plant this year, according to Master Gardener LuAnn Troxel, was a clustered bellflower misidentified as a bee balm. "We mistakenly suggested that it was Blue Twist Bee Balm, but we have now verified that it is clustered bellflower (Campanula glomerata)," she said in an e-mail sent to those who wondered. "It is really quite lovely."

The opinions expressed are solely the writer's. Reach her at jeanstarr@verizon.net.