Faculty, staff and students may not know her by name, but everyone at the university is familiar with her work. She is the architect and coordinator of the campus grounds. It is her responsibility to ensure that they are properly cared for, that the grass is kept green and mowed, that the flowers are in bloom and healthy, and that the campus is free of litter.

She also coordinates the recycling program, cares for the shrubs in the median strip on Hampton Boulevard, and manages the landscaping and maintenance of the Virginia Beach Higher Education Center.

Patricia King is familiar with every tree, plant and flower on campus. She confesses that she often feels she knows the plants better than the people. Each morning, she performs a drive-through inspection of the grounds, checking for areas that need litter pick-up, mowing, trimming or other special attention.

"Born and raised in France, I was surrounded by gardens," King said. "Most children went to the park; we went to the gardens. It was part of our culture."

King describes European gardens as elaborate masterpieces of design. "Every town has a central garden that members of the community help care for," she said.

She believes her love of gardens stems from her exposure to them as a child. "As I have gotten older I have never forgotten the gardens. I've always kept flowers and a vegetable garden."

King said she could tell she had a "real feel for gardening" at an early age. "Gardening," she explained, "is the kind of work you have to really love, because it's hard work. You're digging in dirt, and you're hot, so you have to really like that kind of work."

King did not speak English when she arrived in the United States at age 14. She made the move after her mother married an American citizen. However, she did speak French and Spanish, and was taught English by a Spanish nun at Sacred Heart Church in Indian Head, Md. "Ironically," notes King, "I was a French girl speaking Spanish to learn English."

King is meticulous in her scrutiny of the grounds and believes her job as Old Dominion's grounds superintendent/landscape designer places her in an important role in student recruitment.

"First impressions are really important," she explained. "If the campus looks good, chances are you are given the image that everything else runs well within that university," she said.

King describes what she does as both an art and a science. She approaches new projects from an artistic perspective, starting with pictures of the project site and then creating sketches of what she envisions the site becoming.

"When I create a garden, I've got to not only draw it on paper, I have to feel what it is going to be like. Very, very early on in my design is where I get the most satisfaction - in the creating part of it," she said.

King, who holds an associate's degree in agricultural business from Tidewater Community College, also enjoys the aspect of her work that involves science. "It's like any other trade," she stated. "You really need to understand what it is that you're working with. It involves timing and culture - knowing what to plant and when to plant it."

Then there's the responsibility of caring for the fish and other aquatic life in the pond by the Oceanography and Physics Building - "not something that you would normally do in grounds maintenance," King said.

She refers to the 22 people who work for her, not as grass cutters or grounds keepers, but as professionals. "What they do matters a great deal," she said. "Groundskeeping is critical to why this university looks the way it does. It's not just a bunch of people cutting grass and trimming plants; there's a whole science behind what they do."

According to King, it is the dedication of her employees that makes her successful in her job. "I can have a degree, and I can have a vision and a cultural plan, but if I don't have dedicated employees to do the work and pull together when times are tough, it just doesn't happen," she said.

In 1994, one year after her arrival at Old Dominion, King developed the idea of in-house designed gardens, or "quiet spaces," on campus. Her first creation was Monarch Gardens near Webb Center. She has since developed a number of other gardens and quiet spaces, including ones outside the Batten Arts and Letters Building, Kaufman Hall and the Dragas International Center.

In fact, the local chapter of Garden Club of Virginia put the university on its Historic Garden Week of Virginia tour in April. Old Dominion was the only campus on the itinerary. "Being included in the garden tour was a fairly big accomplishment for a state university," said King.

Among her latest projects are designing a rose garden to be planted on the west side of the Alfriend Chemistry Building after the maglev construction is completed, and developing a large green space between that building and the Mills Godwin Jr. Life Sciences Building that will serve as an alternate site for activities when Kaufman Mall is unavailable.