Heritage Garden Update

From Lois Robbins:

FYI, last Sunday, the Native Landscape Team took out all switchgrass plants from behind the benches; 4 of the showy goldenrod plants by the East sidewalk, replacing these with 3 new England asters & one spiderwort plant (both deep purple), and behind each bench, several blazing star (tall, spikey, purple) and several hairy beardstongue (pentstemon), (smaller, light purple blossoms). We also added three butterfly weed (orange blossoms) plants near the walkway in the large bed, and transplanted 3 of the switchgrass plants back toward the building, where they will provide structure and background for blossoming plants. All of the new plants were donated by Ruth Vrbensky’s Oakland Wildflower Farm.

We also installed chicken wire winter protection from hungry rabbits around the two serviceberry trees in the west beds. We are now on a strict watering schedule till the new plants develop root systems to sustain them over the winter.

These modifications will provide more color variety for 2009 and beyond. The height of our more enthusiastic plants, such as the helianthus (prairie sunflower) and showy goldenrod will be tamed next year by early cutting back.