Two of the benches have arrived!

Mark Mcquarry delivered the two new benches on Monday afternoon. He did a wonderful job of engraving, and they look wonderful. Bob, Vera, Pat and I identified initial spots for them (can always be repositioned if we like once all four benches are there.) 

Jill and George dropped off the Marker’s bench, so Mark McQuarry took it to be engraved as “donated by Barbara and Tom Marker” and then drove over to pick up Pat’s bench to be engraved in memory of Jan.  Once the exact wording for engraving is decided, Mark will engrave them and deliver to Garden. We are so lucky he has been able to support us on this.

The pines have become distressed from (I assume) lack of serious rain, so we gave them a good soak today.  Anyone want to volunteer to water again next week if we don’t get a good rain?

September 2014 Garden Status

Entry stones were put in place today with help of Bob, Jill, Lynn, and Marti. The engraving came out great on rocks we had selected from Wintergreen mountain. King Custom Engraving in Stuart's Draft did the work for us.

King Custom Engraving will also engrave our memory stones for us.  Here is the stone that Bob Scott ordered in memory of Sarah. Reflection Garden memory stones for remembering deceased Wintergreen property owners and their family members, plus  Wintergreen employees can be ordered for $50 from the Steering Committee. If interested, please contact the Chair, Marti Szczur at szczurm@gmail.com.  

Our benches will be coming this fall. Mark McQuarry is creating two new benches for us and two other of his benches, owned by mountain folks, have been donated to the Garden.

Other than extending the left front entry berm to curve around the front a bit more, the Garden will go into winter rest mode.

Minutes from Steering Committee Meeting on July 18, 2014

Wintergreen Reflection Garden

Steering Committee Meeting Minutes

July 18, 2014  10 am

Attendees: Cindy Coy, Vera Jones, Bob Scott, Marti Szczur, Pat Thompson

•           Treasurer’s Report – Cindy reported that we have a current balance of $1,750. Known upcoming costs include two engraved stone benches from Mark McQuarry, engravings on two existing stone benches, engraved entry stone, two serviceberry (or similar trees) to go in open area to left of garden, and additional future plants/materials.
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•         Maintenance

o   Mulch - We are hoping WPOA can provide us with more mulch, as the walking areas need another layer.  Marti will check with Gary, again.  If they are unable to provide mulch, we’ll investigate getting a free delivery of wood chips from one of the tree care companies. Once received, we’ll need to schedule a mulch moving party.

o   Watering – Watering crew is keeping plants happy. Marti purchased 3 lightweight “pocket hoses” for water ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ to use for rest of summer/fall (when she’d like to have them back.:-)  Vera discovered how much easier these hoses were to use than lugging the no-doubt stronger, but heavy rubber hoses around.

•         Pathway rocks – Committee concurred that the pathway rocks from the Schwiesows looked good.
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•         Signage

o   Entry rock – Cindy will discuss with Mark McQuarry about whether her greenstone rock can be engraved and what the cost will be.  If Mark is unable to engrave it, Kings Custom Engraving can do it, assuming we bring it to them.

o   Memory stones – Sample of the 4-5” rock as placed among river stones. Size was appropriate for blending in with larger stones. Tentative agreement was to charge $50 for engraved stone. Our cost is $30 with tax, and extra $20 would go toward garden maintenance and rock pick-up costs (gas and time.)

o   Shh… rocks – It was felt that we’d delay purchasing these rock signs.  The entry garden sign of “Wintergreen Reflection Garden – a place of peace and remembrance” gives the idea of the nature and purpose of the garden, and the signs seemed kinda off-putting.

•         Benches - Cindy will order from Mark McQuarry the two benches purchased by Bob Scott and Helen Eisenhart, and Mark will engrave as requested. Cindy will also discuss with Mark about timing for us to delivery the two existing benches to him for engraving.
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•         Notifications

o   Draft article for the Fall MHA LINK was distributed by Marti to Steering Committee for review/comment. Suggestions were added to article. It is not due until mid-Sept., so article will be checked for accuracy/updates before final submission. 

o   It was also suggested that an article be sent to WPOA for option of including in their newsletter, as well as a Q&A list related to questions WPOA may get from property owners about the Reflection Garden (e.g., where it is, who to contact about making donations, buying a memory rock, general guidelines, etc.)

o   It was also suggested that an article be sent to the Stoney Creek newsletter editor for optional inclusion in their publication.

o   It was agreed that we should host a Ribbon cutting party in the Fall, after Phase One has been completed. Invitees would include all of those who contributed to the Garden’s implementation, as well as anyone interested. Planning this event can begin later this summer or early Fall.

o   Mountain Women will be given a preview tour of Garden at their August meeting.

Wintergreen Reflection Garden Website is launched!

Thanks to Janelle Carroll for implementing Wintergreen Reflection Garden website.  As the Reflection Garden was initiated by a group of Mountain Women, it is available as a link from the Mountain Women Homepage. The address is 

http://www.wintergreenmountainwomen.com/ReflectionGarden.html

An article about the Reflection Garden will be written for publishing in the Fall Mountain Homesteader Association's newsletter, The LINK. Other opportunities for spreading the word will be discussed among the Steering Committee.

Mid-July Reflection Garden Update

Kudos to Lynn Luessen for designing a rock garden around the twin tree area, and to Vera Jones for digging up and planting her Stonecrop Sedum with Lynn. Joe and Marti followed up by mulching around the plants. Really looks nice.

Thanks to Nancy and Dave Schwiesow for donating some lichen-decorated rocks from their woods, and then having their garden helper, Jeff, deliver them to the Reflection Garden. 

Joe and Marti Szczur positioned the rocks along one side of the entry path.

 What happened with Mother Nature ignoring us and not dumping any rain on us last week? Marti had rain duty and spent an afternoon giving plants a good soak.

Steering Committee meeting scheduled for July 19th. Minutes will posted. 

Notes from June 24th Steering Committee Meeting

On June 24th, the Steering Committee met to discuss status.  Attendees were Sue Carlson, Cindy Coy, Vera Jones, Lynn Luessen, Marti Szczur, Pat Thompson, and Jill Toop

We meet at the garden, which is really coming together thanks to the recent efforts of the volunteer gardeners. Let’s acknowledge those who have put in back breaking labor with clearing, weeding, rock prying/moving, mulching, planting, and watering. Kudos to Sue Carlson, Cindy and John Coy, Vera Jones, Betty Kane, Dave Litchfield, Lynn Luessen, Georgia Orphan, Bob Scott, Nancy Schwiesow, Marti and Joe Szczur, and Pat Thompson.

Summary of topics discussed included -

·      Treasurer’s Report – Cindy reported that we have received contribution dollars from 20 different mountain residents, and after paying off start-up expenses (trees, river stone, pine straw mulch), we still have some left in the kitty for completion of Phase 1 and initial maintenance.

·      Garden Planting – All the initial planting for Phase 1 has been completed.  Selection and arranging delivery of path stones from Schwiesows is a to-do activity.

·      Maintenance - Weeding of the stilt grass (ugh!) in the garden border areas will require a serious effort and more mulch is needed for the pathways and open area. The watering crew is doing a fabulous job of keeping the plants happy.  

·      Signage – Marti will investigate options and costs of buying an entry rock to be engraved. Cindy has a flat surface rock we may want to use and have engraved. After discussion about labeling, the most liked label was

Reflection Garden

a place of peace and remembrance

Homework assignment was for all to ponder on this labeling and propose other candidate wording.  We can vote if there is not a consensus. We decided to order 3 small signs with “Shh … please” for placing around garden.  Marti will check out cost of these.

·      Website Status – Thanks to Janelle Carroll, the Reflection Garden webpage will be a link off the Mountain Women Website.  After Marti updates the most recent list of contributors, Janelle will ‘turn on’ the site. 

·      Memory stones – Marti brought two sizes of stones for  ‘show ‘n tell.’ The larger size was decided to be too small for people memory stones.  Pat Thompson is going to King Custom Engravers with a sample rock size from our river stone island to check out what is available and the cost. Cost of a memory rock is being proposed at $100 to cover not only the cost of the rock, but include donation toward memory rock ordering/pickup and garden maintenance.

·      Interest in pet memory stones has been expressed.  It was decided to postpone discuss and implementation of a pet memory area until after the people part is completed.  The idea will be to have a different area in the garden for small engraved pet memory stones. 

A couple of berms planted just in time for the rain

Cindy knee deep in Wild Ginger

Thank you, Dave!

Joe with his river stones

Garden looking better day by day ... June 4, 2014

David Litchfield, our neighbor on Blackrock Circle, donated Black Cohosh plants for one of our berms.  Not only did he donated them, but dug them up from his yard and transplanted them at the Reflection Garden this afternoon.  Marti assisted and planted some ferns in front of the Black Cohosh. Also, she had some Christmas Ferns to transplant, and we placed them in the front berm. Wild Ginger Berm Captain Cindy was on-site planting ...guess what? ... Wild Ginger and some Columbine. Joe joined us to move some more of the river stone to the central area.  Except for possible refinement of the stone 'curves,' I'd say the center area is completed.

Go check out the dry stream bed that Lynn (does Larry get any credit for helping?) laid down in the front gully area. Looks great, Lynn!

Pat came by as Cindy and I were doing some weeding.  She came by to drop off buckets for our watering scheme and ended up joining us in the weeding frenzy.  We cleared the areas around the trees of some of the nasty weeds, leaving the Goldenrod and some other nice natives. Barely made a dent, but it's a start. A weeding party is in our future. :-)

I'm away from June 7-19.  Anyone who wants to plan a planting or weeding session, just feel free to put out a notice for volunteers.

Cindy, can I ask you to be the point of contact while I'm away?  Thanks!

Reflection Garden Steering Committee Meeting

May 27, 2014

Attendees: Sue Carlson, Cindy Coy, Vera Jones, Lynn Luesson, Marti Szczur, Pat Thomson

Thanks to a bit of a rainstorm dampening our meeting site at the CS Pavilion, we fled to Cindy Coy’s house (after a detour to the closed Black Bear Café), Once together and dry, we covered a lot of topics.  Here is a summary:

•   Summer watering strategy – To ensure that our new plants make it through the summer, we decided to have volunteers take 1 or 2 weeks of ‘watering duty.’ To aid in the process, Pat Thompson came up with the brilliant idea of gathering up a bunch of large plastic cat litter containers (or other large plastic containers) that we can punch a small hole or two in the bottom, fill ‘em up, and let them slow drip on the plants.  We’d like at least 20 to use on new trees.  Got any?  Call Marti Sue, or Jill for pick up or dropping off.

•    Water Duty Sign Up (to date)

-  May 26 – June 7 … Cindy

-  June 8-21 … Sue Carlson

-  June 22-July 5 … Vera

-  July 6-19 … Marti

-  July 20-Aug 2 … Pat Thompson

-  Aug 3 -16 … TBD

-  Aug 17-30 … TBD

-  Sep 1-14 … TBD

-  Sep 15-28 … TBD

Plants will need a good soak every week. If Mother Nature provides this soak, lucky you! Knowledge of watering process can be handed off from person going off-duty to person going on-duty.

       

•    Budget status

    Since the meeting, Cindy has received more donations, which brings the total up to $900! We’ll start paying off the loan from Szczurs and buy some berm mulch. Speaking of which …

•    … there was consensus to use pine straw/needles for mulching the berms.. Cindy is going to research places to buy and cost of pine straw.

•   Berm planting – It was decided to go ahead and plant the berms this summer with donated plants. Berm “Captains” J were assigned, and they will be responsible for overseeing the collection and planting of the designated plants for their berm.  They will solicit help on an ‘as needed’ basis from the volunteer pool. Berm Captains may want to supplement an additional plant to their berm, using Jill’s compiled list as guide (e.g., complementary plant with Bleeding Hearts.) If so, just send out a memo to Jill Toop and Marti Szczur, so we can maintain an updated plant list and plan.

            BERM CAPTAINS

-       Captain Cindy: Columbine/Wild Ginger Berm

-       Captain Marti: Ferns/Black Cohosh Berm

-       Captain Jill: Christmas Fern/Green ‘n Gold (Lynn will provide the Green ‘n Gold)

-       Captain Lynn: Grey Beardtongue and Bleeding Heart Berms

•    We agreed that the river stone placement around the center boulders needs to be extended. Lynn took the lead on this.  (However, if you are over at Garden weeding, planting, or watering, you can carry a bucket over while there … just did that this morning.

•    Lining pathway with rocks – Marti will coordinate with Nancy to bring some “good looking” rocks over and begin to line walk way. We can refine it as needed.

•    Pat checked with Mark McQuarry (bench craftsman), and he will engrave his benches for us.  Pat will coordinate the engraving timing and fee with him.  Goal will be to have benches engraved and moved on location by August 1. NOTE: We’ll need some strong mountain men to help with moving benches. Two benches are at Pat’s and one is at Jill’s.

•    Entry design – Marti will develop a draft design for landscaping around the entry trees.  May be that this area will be a entry area rock garden island, rather than beginning of walk way. Whatcha think?

•     Permanent stone entry rock/engraving – There was consensus to buy a largish entry rock engraved with “Wintergreen Reflection Garden” and place it in corner of berm on right of pathway. Marti and Pat will consult with folks at King Custom Engraving about providing/engraving this rock.  We will also get a few small “Shhh …” rocks to place around. [Note – looking into drones to circle area and buzz any misbehaving visitors … yes, I am kidding.]

•    Space where the river stones are staged will need to have some planting, as it is a perfect spot for an understory tree/shrub … perhaps a Nine Bark, Viburnum or Spirea.  Lynn is going to take a look at the NF inventory to see what might work.

•    After meeting, some of us went over to view David Hockstein’s garden.  He has artistic rock arrangements scattered throughout his woods.  It gave us some thoughts/ideas about how we might want to extend the garden into the woods using stone features rather than plantings.

Phew … did I capture it all?