symmetry
The formal parterre garden can be seen in aerial photos of the garden from 1910, but in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s it had been forgotten and completely hidden under weeds. It took over a decade to bring this part of the garden back to life.
2002 before any work-note the stone almost visible in the rear center of the photo
2002- after our first round of clearing out the space. the stone bench is now visible
2002- finding brickwork, concrete, and stone walls was so exciting. this whole garden area had been overgrown and forgotten
2002
2002- as we continued working in the area, we found steps!
the amount of soil and work needed to clear this area was more than we could tackle so even in 2009, it was still unused
2009
until in 2010 an art/garden project was installed and they needed soil to fill this planter
pollinator habitat garden
2010
2010- the contractor who installed the circle bed cleared out most of the formal garden!
2010
2010- between the contractor and an AmeriCorps team, the formal garden was cleared and ready to plant
2011
2011- plants are laid out
2011- plants are laid out for planting
my intern and I spent hours trying to get the oxalis out- those white noodly things are Oxalis pes-caprae tubers
2011- after herbs and mulch are in
2012
2014- the herbs filled in. this was a public garden for anyone to harvest, unlike the garden plots which were assigned to individuals or families
after many years, it was time to replace the plants