For a long time, the bank on the north side of the Richmond Manor property has been the home of weeds, rocks and other unsightly things. The north side residents have not had much of a view. The Landscape Committee took on this project this year with the goal to bring the “North Slope” up to the landscaping standards of the rest of the property. On Wednesday, July 15, 2009 the bulk of that project was completed.
A great deal of credit should go to John Weschler.
John took this project to heart. When the project started, the entire bank was covered with weeds. John adopted the project and spent countless hours crawling about on the bank pulling weeds and harvesting rocks.
There are a lot of rocks in the North Slope! So many that we were able to construct a dry riverbed while hardly even touching the supply.
John also adopted a small plot at the north end below the slope and next to the chain link fence. Out of his own pocket he filled the area with a wide variety of colorful plants and then planted them with great care.
Many thanks to John for all his efforts.
John describes it as a labor of love and his hobby.
John was not alone in the effort. The Landscape and Gardening Committee worked to develop a plan. There was a lot of debate and we were fortunate to have a couple of visits from Thom Gessford, a landscape architect and a good friend, who offered his advise and recommendations without charge.
Likewise, we got input from our lawn maintenance contractor and several other folks. Many trips were made to various nurseries to look at plants and seek suggestions and advice.
Several people contributed labor in cleaning the bank, improving the soil, planting some of the plants, spreading bark and running errands. Many thanks to all. When John gets back from Germany, we will add a complete list.
Here you can see another view of the project.
The plants were arranged in groups or clusters, but that is a bit hard to see from this shot.
The prep for the project involved clearing out of the weeds and a complete working of the soil with the addition of steer manure for fertilizer and Preen to inhibit weed growth.
A couple of the workers on this project, Linda Weschler and Bob Terry.
Several volunteers worked on various parts of the project which also included replacing four arborvitae plants that had died.
Bob and Linda worked with John throughout the project when extra hands were needed.
As the project matured, became apparent that it was beyond the scope of a volunteer effort. We already had the weeds cleared and some fertilizer worked into the soil, but any hope of getting the project completed before the end of summer was vanishing. Our main volunteer wanted to do it, but he and Linda were off to Germany.
The Landscape Committee developed a bid specification based on the design they had developed this spring. The Committee then arranged for the purchase of the plants per their specification and did so directly utilizing Sky, Swanson’s and several others including a trip to Woodinville’s Flower World. In all eight nurseries were used to insure we had the best plants at the best price.
Doris Beck and Judy Terry
And those ferns – harvested directly from the wild. Thanks John and Bob!
The Committee cherry-picked the bids selecting the work or items from each to get the best value. As a result, the project came in significantly under budget.
After the plants were in, Bob Terry and Doris Beck proceeded to lay out a special jute netting that adds stability to the bank and will help to hold the bark in place. After Bob and Doris had completed most the project which involved laying out the netting, cutting holes for the plants and staking the netting in place, more volunteers joined the effort. Many thanks to our newest neighbor, Puneet, Unit 313. He jumped into the project and helped a pooped crew to finish the project on time.
Finally, on Wednesday we had the bark delivered and blown in to cover the entire bank in 3″ of bark. That meant more volunteer effort covering the plants for protection and then cleaning away the excess. A lot of bark hand to be hand placed to protect the plants.
Here you see Doris Beck watering the new plants while Judy Terry directs traffic. Well actually she was trying to waive off the photographer.
Watering these new plants will be a challenge until they are fully settled into their new ground. We have no sprinkler system and it takes about 45 minutes to water the area properly by hand.
April 2017 update: Almost eight years have passed since we completed this project. The North Slope is now well established and provides a much better view to the north than was there for so many years before.