What’s going on in the front of the church?
The longer term goal for the steep hills on either side of the front stairs leading to the church is to gradually expand the planting beds and create a rock garden of native perennial plants that will slow down and help absorb storm water sheeting off the church and lawn area. Helen Hines, and her able assistants John Hughes and Ed Menoche, seized an opportunity to acquire rocks that were being dismantled from a neighbor’s yard. The rocks were placed on the hillside while we developed a longer-term plan. They have since been regrouped into smaller planting beds, with the help of Helen, Ed and Wil Harkins. The objective is to gradually expand the beds, planting locally native perennial plants, in more manageable stages.
Some initial native plantings include Moss Phlox (Phlox subulata) and Threadleaf Coreopsis (Coreopsis verticillata). Expanding these beds will take some time and experimentation as we discern which plants are best suited for these challenging conditions.
Many thanks to Libby Harkins for her work in keeping the beds adjacent to the stairway looking beautiful with annual plants.
The church required a new gas line, which necessitated digging up the planting bed left of the front doors. A very last minute “plant rescue” was attempted for the Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica), Bleeding Heart (Dicentra exima) and Robin’s Plantain (Erigeron pulchellus). We likely will not know until next year whether or not these plants will survive the move, especially given the need to dig them up when the soil was so wet.