The North Point Garden

Today's blog features the weekly "historical installment" showing the construction of the North Point garden back in 2010 and 2011. This garden has fast become a favorite with lots of color and a beautiful, panoramic view of the pond. This garden is situated north of the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden and west of the alpine garden. The photo directly below shows the original site which consisted of scrubby European buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica), a few cottonwood (Populus deltoides) and lots of garbage along the weedy shoreline. Where you see dark green (mid right) in the photo below, the grade sloped about 6' down to the shoreline which was again a mess. This was a site reclamation project first and later progressed with terracing, the construction of an arbor structure, installation of a bluestone patio and the later inclusion of benches, Adirondack chairs, containers, boxwood (Buxus) hedges and colorful plantings. The structure concept was developed by a local architect at the request of RBG Founder, Dr. Robert Yahr. Our Grumpy Volunteers built this fabulous structure as well as the benches and chairs in this garden as well. Other involved parties included Nature's Touch Landscaping and DWG Landscaping. More on that garden further below.

It was another rainy day and while we thought there would be more "dry spells" than yesterday, that really didn't materialize. The crew did a wide range of indoor and outdoor tasks. Janice and I worked on more Spring Plant Sale and Tree Sale details including timing for deliveries next week, pricing, labeling and volunteerism efforts. These sales have become quite involved events and we're hoping for good weather on Mother's Day weekend and a strong showing of customers. Janice also worked on the cutting display and many other tasks. Cindy was out in the gardens for tidying efforts and worked on various indoor tasks when the rain became more prominent! Cheryl had her own tidying duties out in the gardens and is apparently the most waterproof of all of us with her consistent progress during all the precipitation. Pat worked on preparing our first giant obelisk for installation and securing out in the gardens and later shifted to painting and other indoor projects. Big John and Terry started securing the first twelve of our 2014 Garden Art Adirondack chairs out in the reception garden. Denise was over to help with the signage as well. The guys also worked on organizing the yard for the sale, running for supplies and myriad other projects. Larry unloaded a delivery of trees and shrubs (with John and Terry) and spent much of his time preparing the sunken garden pool and fountain. We also had the delivery of some donated woodchips (thanks L.P. Tree Service!). Our first outdoor wedding of the season is this Saturday in the sunken garden! Everyone was flexible with multiple projects going on and we'll continue to do the same throughout this rainy week. Volunteers included Tom K. (assigned gardener), Maury (supply run), Nancy N. (painting), Urban and Glenn. I had an afternoon meeting to also prepare for our June 17th Horticultural Therapy Event (see our website under Events). Check out the captions below each photo for a chronological progression of the North Point Garden development.