What’s Blooming: The Welcome Garden
by Selena Kunze, Horticulturist, Gardens on Spring Creek
The Welcome Garden was started in 2019 following completion
of construction on the new building addition…or should I say it was pulled from
the compacted earth, through parched patches of turf and crushed perennials. Initially
coined “The Giant Pit”, lovingly of course, the garden began
with removal of the suffering remnants of old beds, long unirrigated because of
construction and frequently trampled by equipment and workers. The dwarf Forsythia,
originally planted by former Curator Sherry Fuller as babies from her
grandmother’s shrubs, were carefully dug and potted, while surviving perennials
and grasses were relocated to nearby gardens or divided for our annual Spring
Plant Sale. Big Daddy, the praying mantis sculpture made from repurposed
metal dumpsters by Josh Jones, was commissioned to keep watch over the canal by
the Theme Gardens instead, and volunteers painstakingly separated dormant Narcissus
and Scilla bulbs from the weeds and grass that had been taking over the
sculpture’s feet.
Once the benches were in place, the bones of a flagstone
path were laid out in the large, center section of the garden, dividing it into
three chunks and allowing visitors to immerse themselves in the plants
(eventually). Some of the stones were remnants from past projects…cap rocks
from old walls used as steps, stone bench legs buried to look like boulders,
bricks turned on end to fill in gaps. The remaining flagstone was locally
quarried, carefully fitted together, and leveled. Next, work began on the strip
stone border lining the entire north side of the garden. Viewed from the north
or west, the border is meant to compliment the retaining walls and boulders in
the Rock and Theme Gardens. And let’s be honest, who doesn’t think a sprawling
plant grown over the edge of a stone wall is sexy?!
It was at about this point that everyone thought plants
would finally be going into the garden. But it was hot, SO HOT, and we were
suffocating under the smoke and ash of the Cameron Peak Fire. What better time
to “plant” boulders instead?! Using a hand truck, and occasionally the Toolcat
(a utility work machine – like a forklift, only cuter), boulders were
strategically placed in clusters to provide planting pockets and structure to
the garden. In total, forty tons of rock went into that garden. Forty!
By fall of 2020, it was time. The flats and gallons and gobs of plants that I had been hoarding for over a year were about to be set free from their plastic prisons! I hauled cart after cart of plant material out of the nursery and onto the sidewalk by the bridge. This is my favorite part, putting together plant combinations, laying them on the ground in their approximate permanent locations, with the vision of what they will look like in six months…a year from now…in my head. There was a musician playing the guitar in the nearby Theme Gardens (I’m not making this up—there was really an event going on in the expanded part of The Gardens!). As an employee, I would have worked that evening for free.
By design, the garden is unfettered by a theme. It is to
represent all the other gardens, an introduction to visitors as they pass
through the lobby to the grounds on the other side. Native plants mingle with
just-released, patented hybrids. And time-proven cultivars, grown on site and stashed
in my piles before they could be sold at our Plant Sale, mix with varieties
ordered from local nurseries on a whim. Some of the plants, requiring a little
more water than the measly 15 inches we get a year naturally, are protected by
wood mulch and sited at the junction of two sprinkler heads. Others loathe
extra moisture, and happily clamber down shallow slopes in rock mulch,
reseeding where they please, their progeny at the mercy of volunteers who help
pull weeds in the months and years to follow.
Representing not only the other gardens, but also the team,
the favorite plant of each staff member is included in the garden. Sherry’s Forsythias
were some of the first plants to be installed—they anchor the bed on the north
side of the sidewalk with their graceful form and cheery yellow, early spring
flowers, contributing to the design even as the season ends when their foliage
turns coppery red. The Crocosmia are for Mary, our Community Garden
Outreach Coordinator…the bulbs were tacked onto an order by a friend at a local
nursery, planted in 4.5-inch pots and grown through winter in our greenhouse.
The apricot tree is mine. Apricots bloom early – too early – the flowers are often
nipped by late frosts. But I don’t care if it never makes fruit. I love the
shiny, ovate leaves and the smooth, reddish bark, pock-marked by grey lenticels.
Michael, our Development Officer, wanted a bald cypress tree, a challenging variety
to find in our area. Taxodium ‘Cody’s Feathers’ was ordered online and sits
as sentinel on the slope by the retaining wall, scaring me through winter, but
pulling through and leafing out this spring.
Behind the sign that begged forgiveness in big black letters for most of the season: “Pardon our mess, new gardens coming soon”, the garden slowly filled up with plants. After some time and several volunteer shifts spent planting, the new garden was finally here. The sign came down, The Giant Pit refilled. Welcome to the Welcome Garden!