At the top of the hill at the driveway split, this small garden welcomes folks into campus with a directional sign and is anchored by a lovely flowering cherry tree surrounded by perennials. Maintained totally with volunteer help, this garden requires some weeding and deadheading of flowers.
The garden that was historically called the Welcome Garden is at the high point of the sanctuary grounds where the driveway splits in two. A way-finding sign was added to this garden in 2017 pointing folks to the various buildings on the ERUUF campus. The Welcome Garden was originally planned and tended by Donna Deal, a former member. A lovely flowering cherry is the centerpiece of the garden, and it is surrounded by perennials including daffodils, peonies, iris, asters, and grasses. A spring-blooming native groundcover called Green-and-Gold is doing a nice job taking over the shady portions of the garden floor. One shrub has grown huge, as shrubs will do, and a current question is whether to prune it way back or dispense with it altogether.
This garden has four needs: (1) periodic weeding (watch out for the occasional poison ivy sprout!), (2) deadheading, (3) some vision about the very sunny/dry front edge of the garden (under the sign and in the triangle between driveway and sidewalk); several native plants have been tried but have not thrived there, and (4) input/correction about the ungainly shrub between the sign and the cherry tree. If you have ideas and/or would like to assist with this garden, contact Jane Hewitt.
