Helpful Suggestions

To the Editor:

The Town & Country Garden Club, in particular the members assigned to Island 3 (Glover Avenue and Route 25), would like to publicly thank Dan Holmes of Holmes Fine Gardens for his assistance last spring in the redesign of the island.

The public probably is not aware that the ladies of the club volunteer their time to plant, weed, and water the three traffic islands in the center of town. Water is a big problem as it is not readily available to the islands. Each lady brings jugs of water from home to water the plants at her assigned maintenance time. Not an easy task.

With all of this in mind we consulted with Dan. His solution was to redesign the island with particular attention to native perennials. The “bones” of the island were good, he said, however, we needed to remove a few of the larger, older plants, divide and cluster other perennials, and add more native perennials.

With a design in hand and new plants purchased, the island was replanted last spring. By the end of last summer we were all very pleased with the results. This year we are even more pleased. The perennials are all well established and will require much less water. We have a smaller area to plant our seasonal annuals, and yet, more color. The island looks better and requires less labor.

Thanks, Dan, for giving of your precious time and your expertise. We love the results and feel the public will agree, the island looks great!

Arline Shanley and Emi Lydem

Island 3 Co-chairs

75 Georges Hill Road, Newtown                                       June 7, 2011