From a local public garden....

9 years ago

There is an interesting public garden in our town - an old estate property that had been, years ago, gifted to the town. It's on the lake so is in a beautiful location. The town does a good job of planting and maintaining the gardens, although the feel is a bit 'municipal' in places if you know what I mean - i.e. somewhat lacking in the quirky bits that often give an individual's garden its distinctive character, and the use of exotic/tropical plants that need to be overwintered in the municipal greenhouse (e.g. the banana trees in the bed around one of the ponds....) We stopped in briefly one day this week and intend to go back this week for a closer look at what's growing on there now. Here are two pictures from this week of scenes I particularly liked:

Looking out along the lakeshore - I liked the blend of the tropical plant on the left with the wilder local landscape along the shore - a sort of 'have your cake an eat it too' experience :-)
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I liked how the color and shape of the peppers both matched and contrasted with the coreopsis. You can see that some of the peppers are starting to change color and, while not included in this picture, there were some other plants in the bed that looked like they'd soon be blooming to match the peppers as they darken in color, so it'll be interesting to see what happens in this bed over the next little while.
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Comments (7)

arbo_retum
9 years ago
what a COOL idea! love it! now just put a purple leaved shrub behind it and you have perfection!

how tall is this planting, woody?
woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
Original Author
9 years ago
The pepper/coreopsis planting was fairly low - an edging for a largish bed, I can't remember what else was in the bed! Will have to take a closer look when we go back later,,, The yellow edging was so vivid it hogged all the attention! :-)

Edited to say... It occurred to me after I posted the above comment - I bet the coreopsis-looking flowers are not a perennial but an annual that looks like thread-leaf coreopsis. I'm not very familiar with annuals - is there an annual form of coreopsis or a look-alike for it? In any case, mixing the peppers with the perennial thread-leaf coreopsis could still be an interesting combination.

This post was edited by woodyoak on Sun, Aug 31, 14 at 10:01
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agardenstateof_mind
9 years ago
What a lovely place to have for the public to enjoy! I understand what you mean about the "quirky bits" ... point well made!

Yes, there are several varieties/cultivars of coreopsis that are annual, though I cannot tell what kind is in your photo.

Mt. Cuba Center in MD is conducting trials of many native plants, including both annual and perennial coreopsis. You'll find lots of info on their site if you're interested ... www.mtcubacenter.org.
moliep
9 years ago
That first photo is great! It has the appearance of a "lost" island .... like some place once glorious and now abandoned.

I wonder... is the landscaping and care of the gardens done completely by the town or is there a trust that determines what is done to the property? In any case, you've very lucky to have something so interesting in your community.
woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
Original Author
9 years ago
As far as I know, the town does all the garden work. There's quite a large horticulture effort by the town in a number of parks and other municipal garden areas. The municipal greenhouse grows all the plants for the many hanging baskets and planters around town in addition to annuals for the parks, and the greenhouse is a popular place for wedding photos in winter as there is a very nice garden in the greenhouse. At the moment, the town and the descendants of the people that donated the property shown above are in a dispute because of changes the town wants to make to the original house and perhaps to sell some of the property for development. The family (and quite a few town residents!) don't want changes made, but the maintenance costs, particularly of the house, are rising so the town is looking for a way to deal with that without raising taxes - so I assume there's no trust fund that went along with the gift :-)

Looking at pictures of the annual coreopsis makes me pretty sure those ones with the peppers are annuals.
arbo_retum
9 years ago
So many people do not understand the concept of restricted gifts whereby the seller can include provisions in the gift-that must be followed. Just like this case, a good lawyer should have advised them re development issues, changes to the buildings or the land, and the restrictions wording that needed to be included in the deed and sale.

But the gift probably was made a long time ago, before the
knowledge that exists now.
woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
Original Author
9 years ago
The property was donated in 1971 to be used as an art gallery and public garden. As the house (built in the 1920s) has aged, the cost of keeping the internal environment suitable for art works has increased substantially. What to do about that, and the cost of it, is the core of the problem.