Lakes Park Gardeners

2011-10-11T12:33:00.007-04:00

Summer Wrap-up

The volunteer gardeners have been busy all summer adding to the beauty of the Gardens at Lakes Park. Visitors commented that they'd never seen it look better, which made our sweaty toil worth the effort.
The most challenging project was the cactus garden improvements. Ann Wagner started adding polished gravel after she removed some mulch in the center of the area. It looked so good that she expanded the gravel ground cover as areas were weeded. Dave Bush worked to reduce poor plants and move the cactus and succulent sign to the beginning of the area, not the middle.

Jo Ann Soyka, Carol Stream, and many others weeded and applied weed control products while trying to avoid getting jabbed by our pointy friends.
Marcy Watts expanded the "Butterfly Way" near the eastern edge of the garden. She added several new butterfly plants. Dick Dutton has done a fabulous job of labeling the plants throughout the garden. Janie Steffens and Tricia Connors-Uhrig have kept the roses well-groomed. The plants are doing very well considering the heat and humidity.
Carol Siferd has been pruning near the entrance where the new dwarf poinciana have been spectacular. Marie, Betsy, Ben, Anne K., Al, and all the others have worked very hard, and it shows. Fred joined us recently and made a great addition.

Fall Projects

We have vegetable and herb seeds planted for sale items at the Friday farmer's market. Community Gardeners, who have rented their plots, have supported us with purchases, and we appreciate it.
We'll work on a micro-grant project to develop a drip-irrigation system for the wedding gazebo area. Betsy spends hours watering, so this might help.
We'll be happy to welcome back our seasonal gardeners and maybe some new ones.

Work Day June 16, 2010

2010-06-16T15:35:00.004-04:00

Today we had eight volunteers working in the garden, and that's great group for such a hot day in the summer. I was feeling sorry for myself until I saw the guys installing a metal roof on the concession stand. The morning glories and moon vines are in bloom on the trellises behind the wedding gazebo. Here is a photo of the left-hand trellis a few weeks ago.

Marie, Marcy, Alma and I worked on weeding and mulching the area around the Peace garden. We used 47 bags of mulch. It is important to get the mulch 3-4 inches thick in order to keep the weeds down.

Also working today were Lisa at the pond, Al in the shade house, Betsy pruning around the wedding gazebo, and Charlotte weeding in the crotons.

Happy Bloomsday!

Welcome back!

2010-06-09T15:54:00.004-04:00

Hi, everyone! I'm finally getting back to this blog after about 6 months. I really think that this is a worthwhile use of my time, so I'm returning to it with renewed commitment.

Here is a picture I took today at the garden of a native water lily that Lisa planted in the pond about three years ago. This is the first time that they have bloomed.

It was a pretty nice morning today. The humidity was down and there was a good breeze. We had a good crew of eight gardeners and one student volunteer from FGCU.We cleaned out the weeds from the croton bed and watered many areas, especially where new plants are located.

We've been working on a lot of projects since last November and I intend to update you on all of them. What I would like to do is a series of Garden Diary entries for each project. Then in the future when we want to look back and review a certain project, it will be documented here.

That's all for now. My intention is to enter a post every week to document what we are doing. I will also be working on catching up on the project diary posts, so be looking for those too.

2009-11-20T15:23:00.008-05:00

Marcy Watts- a butterfly's buddy!

Marcy has been working at Lakes Park for about a year and a half, devoting much of her time to the benefit of butterflies. She and a few other helpers took a battered greenhouse and transformed it into a haven for plants that attract butterflies. The structure is located near the new locomotive style playground. She hopes that children will enjoy seeing butterflies and learning about them. Marcy plans to have butterflies in the greenhouse during the cooler months, January through March.

Marcy has enhanced other areas of the fragrance garden, too. Her "Butterfly Way" is located on the walkway near the approach to the peace pillar garden. Plants in this area are butterfly friendly and make an attractive border.

Three fabulous daughters, several grandchildren, and a great-grandson are very important in Marcy's life outside the garden. She would be happy to answer questions about butterflies and wants everyone to know the Florida state butterfly--the Zebra Heliconia.

Al in the shade house

2009-06-23T06:14:00.005-04:00

Al Noblett working in the shade house.

Al became a garden volunteer nine years ago when he attended a park plant sale and was "drafted" by other volunteers. He holds a wealth of knowledge about plant identification.

Al's specialty is plant propagation, and his favorite plants are orchids. He's a member of the local orchid society. By reading and self-study, Al finds many sources to identify plants and ways to prepare new starts. Al is getting very busy since we have started propogating plants to save from the community garden area.

Al, a Lehigh Acres resident, is originally from North Carolina where he retired from the Ashville Citizen Times.

Community gardens elsewhere

2009-06-17T06:01:00.004-04:00

Here is a link to a community garden sent to me by Sue Moore. Browsing this blog you will see that it is fairly new. It is designed with raised beds like ours will be, and you will notice the strong response from the community.

http://delawarecenterforhorticulture.wordpress.com/

Today on the New York Times online there is a featured article about the next level of urban gardening: gardens on the roofs of city buildings. Here's the link:

Urban Farming, a Bit Closer to the Sun

The Shade House

2009-06-15T06:09:00.003-04:00

Here is the shade house before we began to clean it up. Making the shade house safe and functional is a key near-term project. We need it to propagate plants that will be lost when the ground is cleared for the community garden, and we need it to raise plants for a plant sale this fall. This structure must remain usable until it is replaced during the construction of the Botanic Garden.

The enclosed house is sound and only needs some replacement lath to hold down the screen, some work on the doors, and repair of the tables inside. The "lean-to" area needs some new posts, new shade cloth, and some new tables.

Mabel Vega, a park supervisor, is coordinating a grant for materials and the services of an Eagle Scout to build new tables.

Seeds

2009-06-14T06:00:00.001-04:00

Welcome to my journal about the happenings among the gardeners and the plants at the Gardens at Lakes Park. My name is Dave Bush and I have just completed the Master Gardener training program.

The beauty of nature touches our spirit like few other things. A beautiful flower or tree nurtured by someone is very special, and most people are touched by experiencing them. This is why the garden volunteers are here. My wife Alma and I are here to make sure the gardeners have what they need to tend the gardens.

My main duty as the coordinator of the garden volunteers is to be the communication link between the volunteers and the organizations that hold sway over us: The Lakes Park Enrichment Foundation, the Lakes Park staff, and the Lee County Extension office.

#$%&* Weeds!

2009-06-09T05:48:00.007-04:00

Weeds, weeds, weeds! They're everywhere. We've had less than a month of rain and the weed population is exploding in the garden. It's frustrating for gardeners everywhere but there are more weeds at the Lakes Park gardens than I see in the other gardens I tend. I think it is especially frustrating for the gardeners at Lakes Park because it seems like all we are doing is pulling weeds, and there are other more interesting things we need to do.

We really must be doing these other tasks right now as we prepare for the community garden so what we need is a strategy to approach the problem:

Know the enemy. Identify the most prevelent species to help determine controls for them.

Work on areas that have the highest public visibility; for example, the rose garden and the wedding gazebo.

Spray (glyphosate) in open areas where desired plants will not be harmed.

Hand pull weeds that are close around desired plants.

Add more mulch.

Think about weed control when designing a new plot. Many of the beds do not lend themselves to eficient weed control. For example, where groundcover plants are used the weeds are not a problem.

Mulch is a key, of course, and I've noticed that many areas do not have enough. In other areas the mulch has decomposed and is now more akin to seed germination media.

I would also like to suggest that no one spend more than half their time pulling weeds. Spend the other half doing something interesting and just enjoying the garden.

Mystery Tree

2009-06-08T12:54:00.002-04:00

Recognize this tree? I've been asking around to find out what it is and all I could learn was that Stephen Brown knew what it was and that it is rare. Well I asked Stephen about it and he got back to me right away with the answer. It is the calabash tree. Check out Stephen's fact sheet at this link:

http://lee.ifas.ufl.edu/Hort/GardenPubsAZ/FactSheet/CrescentiaAlataCalabash.pdf

Doesn't Stephen take great pictures?! I can't wait to make some maracas!

Preparing for the community garden

2009-06-07T06:09:00.005-04:00

The major project related to the community garden for the garden volunteers is to move or propogate the plants that currently occupy that space. So far we have surveyed the plants that are there (completed by Janie Steffins) and we have root pruned and top pruned the smaller moveable plants.

The pink porterweed has been moved by Marcy Watts to the path leading to the Peace Garden. This is where we are concentrating our butterfly plants and we are calling it Butterfly Way.

Al Noblett has begun taking cuttings. I know that he has done the ylang-ylang (cananga tree) but I don't have a complete tally.

I will try to post the survey sketch and plant list here soon.

Community Garden

2009-05-26T15:51:00.002-04:00

The community garden will be the first phase of the Botanic Garden. A community garden is a place where the public can rent a plot to grow their own vegitables and flowers. The plots at the Botanic Garden will be 4'x8' (or 10') raised beds, about 40 of them. The garden will fenced with access only to the plot-holders, staff, and volunteers.

The community garden will be located at the east end of the parking lot by the train museum. In the picture above the sign is in the northwest corner of what will become the garden. The western boundary will be at the top of the swale along the parking lot. The two walkways heading east from the parking lot will be the north and south boundaries of the plots. The eastern boundary will depend on the final plan, but should be something less than halfway to the wedding gazebo, about where the large sabal palm is.

The plan will be submitted by Fred Johnson (Lee County planner) at the next meeting of the Botanic Garden committee on June 24. The plan will most likely be approved, and work will begin in July sometime. The first work to be done will be to clear the site of all plants, rocks. paving, etc.

Right now the volunteers are working to save selected plants that are in harm's way. We will move plants as we can or if not, we will take cuttings or otherwise propogate the plants we want to save.

The Botanic Garden

2009-05-26T07:24:00.002-04:00

The Botanic Garden at Lakes Regional Park is the future of the gardens. Webster's Third International Dictionary defines a 'botanic' (or 'botanical') garden as "a garden that is used for the culture and study of plants collected and grown for scientific and display purposes."

You can see a concept map of what the Botanic Garden might look like by following this link http://www.leeparks.org/images/botanical-garden.jpg
(Click in the drawing to enlarge it.)

The Lakes Park Enrichment Foundation is the driving force behind the Botanic Garden and along with Lee County Parks and Recreation is committed to seeing it become reality.
The first step will be a community garden. See that topic for more details about what is happening now, summer 2009, in the garden.