f i e l d   t r i p s TEXT BY CANDICE MILES
Labyrinth Garden Students strive for ground-level understanding of ancient peoples     "Walking the labyrinth," according to South Mountain Community College instructor Liz Warren, "symbolizes the journey of transformation--exactly what happens when a person embarks on a college education."     Warren's classes--one on Mythology and another on Buried Cities and Lost Tribes-explore the world's early cultures and practices, among them the construction of mazes. "Labyrinths have been discovered in many parts of the world, including Arizona," says the instructor, referring to the Man in the Maze formation of the Tohono O'odham. "They are associated with literature and art as well as architecture and agriculture. By building and tending a labyrinth, students may experience first hand the cycles of life and ways our ancestors merged art and survival."     Inspiration came from. studying a number of historic constructs: the earliest-datable labyrinth, built in Greece around 1300 B.C.; the more than 500 stone mazes found on the shores of the Baltic Sea; the colored marble floor of Amiens Cathedral; and the pilgrimage paths that gave medieval Christians a virtual experience of following the Crusade route to Jerusalem.     Last fall, Warren's students began work on a labyrinth of their own by defining the boundaries of a three-circuit spiral on a grassy lawn south of the college, located at 7050 South 24th Street. Sixty feet in diameter, their maze consists of a path of mowed grass-six feet wide and broadening in shape at the centerpoint--between walls of flowers more than three feet high.	Working after school and on weekends, Warren and her students weed, water, and otherwise tend their garden, which has beme a local attraction. The campus' location off Baseline Road, long the site of the Valley's Japanese flower gardens, sug. gested the use of many-colored blooming sweet peas for the first stage of what will eventually become a more permanent Structure, "We wanted something creative," says Warren, "and my research has never come across a reference to a flowering maze. We also wanted something we could later replace with desert landscaping. Sweet peas seemed perfect."     The hardy, climbing plant quickly filled in the chicken wire structures set out to define the topiarystyle labyrinth. One student claimed that the medley of white, pink, purple, red, and scarlet flowers represented to her the harmonious cultural diversity of those collaborating on the effort.     In April, the college hosted a "Labyrinth Week and Storytelling Festival" at the site. Because the green walls of the garden Warren describes as "a gift to the campus and the larger community as well" seem well-suited for such gatherings, the permanent installation may become a learning space for appropriate classes.     The xeriscape labyrinth now in the planning stage is expected to measure 150 by 350 feet, encompassing the current site and more. In the interim, the student gardeners-many of whom have never experimented with horticultural techniques--replaced the fading sweet peas with a seasonally appropriate mix of green beans, sunflowers, zinnias, and other vegetation.     For more information, call 243-8026.
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