Entrances!

SHRA Entrances are done! :)

Hope you like them! We spent $394.55 out of the $1000 that would have normally gone to an outside contractor! That means the garden raised its first money ($605.45). The final work day was Saturday, May 9, and big big thanks go out to Sue Middleton, Jill, John and Max Gjamov, Roger Cherry, Kim Hugill, Jim Hezter, Annette Buckley, Holley Morris, and Melody and Dick Sexton for doing their part and kindly volunteering their Friday evening for shopping for plants or picking up 80 bags of mulch, as well as their Saturday morning spent weeding, tilling, trimming, fertilizing, transplanting, dividing, planting, shoveling, and mulching. On Sunday, I picked up the last 10 bags of mulch we needed for the N side and spread it. It was quick work.

On the first work day, April 25, Rosemary Sartor, The Gjamovs, Tom Kasberg, and Jim Hetzer prepared the beds by edging and weeding. This was key to have two days with a weekend in between. Sue and Amy continued the work on the Northside the next weekend.

We saved a lot of money through the generosity of Mr.Mulch and Oakland Nursery. Please let them know that you appreciate their support for SH when you go to shop there!

This information is just for the record and might not be very interesting! The mulch was easier to get in bags for this endeavor because Mr. Mulch would have charged us two different $45 delivery fees for each entrance. The NN side took 22 bags, NS 18, SS 25 bags, and SN 25 bags=90 bags total. 30 bags fit in my car, and 25 in Jill and Sue's, but going in shifts throughout Friday evening to pick it up worked out really well as Mr. Mulch was very accommodating. Knowing all of this should save time in the future. We also planted a bunch of perennials that will hopefully continue to grow and thrive, so we can devote more money to annuals next year. In the future, we would also like to coordinate with neighbors who would like to contribute plants they have extra of in their gardens like hostas, daylilies, and sedum. We are going with a red, yellow, and orange color scheme at least for this year-every year will reflect on what worked and what needs to change. The butterfly weed and crocosmia are not available at nurseries during May, so we may continue to amend the bed throughout the summer with those perennials as they become available.