Wintry Harbor Walk at Dawn

The Harbor Walk was beautiful yesterday morning at dawn after the first significant snowfall, with a deceptively warm-appearing orange sherbet sunrise. Despite frozen fingers and toes, I couldn’t help but feel blessed by the beauty that surrounds.

Gloucester Harbor Walk December 30, 2012

Johnny Linville and Friends of the High Line

Perhaps the Future Holds a Friends of the Gloucester Harbor Walk Gardens

Last night I had the joy of hearing Johnny Linville, Manager of Horticulture for the Friends of the High Line, at Bolyston Hall in Boston, presented by COG Design. The dynamic Mr. Linville spoke to a full house of designers, landscape architects, and students eager to hear his presentation and he did not disappoint. With slides and a great sense of humor, Linville shared their successes, and some few failures, reminding us that the ‘park in the sky’ is a living experiment.

The High Line is an elevated freight rail line transformed into a public park on Manhattan’s West Side. It is owned by the City of New York and maintained by Friends of the High Line. This event is timely for Gloucester as Chris Muskopf, the lead architect of the Gloucester Harbor Walk, and I have been speaking about the possibility of developing a Friends of Gloucester Harbor Walk. Friends of the High Line is a non-profit conservancy working with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to ensure the High Line is maintained as an exceptional public space for all visitors to enjoy. I am hoping that perhaps we can create interest in developing a Friends of Gloucester Harbor Walk to help with the educational component of the butterfly garden and to help with maintenance.

Available on the High Line webstore, and at the top of my Christmas wish list, is the book High Line: The Inside Story of New York City’s park in the Sky, written by Friends of the High Line Co-Founders Joshua David and Robert Hammond. Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011. 100% of the proceeds from this book go toward maintenance and operation of the High Line.

From the High Line website: The High Line is a public park built on an historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side. It is owned by the City of New York, and maintained and operated by Friends of the High Line. Founded in 1999 by community residents, Friends of the High Line fought for the High Line’s preservation and transformation at a time when the historic structure was under the threat of demolition. It is now the non-profit conservancy working with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation to make sure the High Line is maintained as an extraordinary public space for all visitors to enjoy. In addition to overseeing maintenance, operations, and public programming for the park, Friends of the High Line works to raise the essential private funds to support more than 90 percent of the park’s annual operating budget, and to advocate for the preservation and transformation of the High Line at the Rail Yards, the third and final section of the historic structure, which runs between West 30th and West 34th Streets.

Special thanks to Lucia Droby, COGDesigns Executive Director for organizing the event and for assistance with my ticket!

Is Joe-pye a Weed?

Sneezeweed, Butterfly Weed, Ironweed, Milkweed, Joe-pye Weed–these are names European colonists assigned to the wildflowers they found growing in North America. Is it any wonder these native beauties have long been overlooked for gardens. The name Butterfly Weed gives us a clue that what to the early settlers was a “weed,” is a pollinator’s dream.

“What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.”

                                                     ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

For the past week, our blooming patch of six-feet-tall Joe-pye Weed has been covered in a bevy of butterflies including more Painted Ladies than ever I even imagined visiting our garden, dozens of newly emerged Monarch butterflies, Eastern Tiger Swallowtails, Question Marks, and thousands of bees.

The Eupatorium growing in the Harbor Walk Gardens is a lower growing species called ‘Baby Joe,’ and it too is as equally attractive to the pollinators.

Joey-pye Weed

Baby Joe

In full bloom this month at the Harbor Walk is the fabulous North American native ‘Baby Joe’ (Eupatorium). While maintaining the Harbor Walk gardens, Jay Ramsey of Farm Creek Landscaping reported seeing no less than half a dozen species of butterflies nectaring simultaneously at the ‘Baby Joe’ on a warm sunny morning this past week. Given your average warm sunny summer day, butterflies are typically on the wing throughout the day; I find the very best time of day to see the very most is between 10:00 am until 12 noon.

Before and After Photos of the Gloucester Harbor Walk

Yesterday was the grand opening ribbon cutting ceremony of the Gloucester Harbor Walk. I designed the pollinator gardens that you see along the walk. While there photographing, deadheading, and weeding in preparation of the big event, not only did I see myriad species of butterflies and bees, a flock of goldfinches flew into the scene and were dining on the seed heads of the Echinacea. Needless to say, I didn’t do much dead heading of the coneflowers!

Helenium autumnale ~ a bee and butterfly attracting magnet

A  few ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos of the area know as I4-C2. The before photos were taken only a few short months ago, in May of this year. The after photos were shot in August. Click photos to view larger images.

I4-C2 May 2012

Gloucester Harbor Walk August 2012

Gloucester Harbor Walk ~ What a Difference! Construction Phase Accomplished in Only a Few Months!

Congratulations and thank you to Mayor Kirk,  Sarah Garcia, Chris Muskopf, Jay Ramsey, and including everyone involved (there are many, many more than named here–these are the people I have had the pleasure to work with on the project) for having the vision, courage, tenacity, and talent to create Gloucester’s Harbor Walk.

Gloucester Harbor Walk ~  View of Gus Foote Park

The Harbor Walk is nearing completion. Despite the plethora of unforeseeable problems with the landfill at I4-C2, and current drought, the walk looks gorgeous. Come, take a stroll!

Gus Foote Park Last Year at this Time. What a difference–the build phase of the project was accomplished in only a few short months!

I will be bringing you more ‘before and after’ photos, as well as information about the native plants habitat gardens (and how you can translate that information to your own garden), in the coming months.

Joey Ciaramitaro Harbor Walk Video

Video Walking Tour of Gloucester Harbor Walk with Good Morning Gloucester creator Joey Ciaramitaro

Meet Chris Muskopf

Chris Muskopf and the newly planted Tulip Trees at St. Peter’s Square

Friday late afternoon I took a stroll along the Harbor Walk to have a look at the newly planted gardens. I heard a friendly hello from behind and there was Chris Muscopf, primary architect and project manager for the Harbor Walk, stopping by to check on the gardens, too. Chris was later meeting JD MacEachern and they were on their way to a running race at Good Harbor Beach.

Chris Muskopf and JD MacEachern

Chris lives in Jamaica Plain with his wife and young daughter Beatrix and rides his bike, or runs, to his job at Cambridge Seven Associates nearly everyday, rain or shine. I’ve gotten to know Chris a little bit over the past year and he is an all around great guy, with a wonderful sense of humor. Chris is working tirelessly, and always with much enthusiasm, to make the Harbor Walk a success. Stop in and see the work in progress. I think you’ll agree, the Harbor Walk is coming along beautifully!

Winter King Planted in the Harbor Walk Gardens

Jay Ramsey with his crew Mauriocio Tuquerres and Mike Rogers planting hawthorn Crategus viridis ’Winter King’ at Gus Foote Park.

Last week Jay Ramsey and his crew planted the garden at I4-C2 and two trees at Gus Foote Park. Jay (Farm Creek Landscaping) suggested the hawthorn ‘Winter King’ and project architect Chris Muskopf and I agreed it was a great suggestion. Jay has had good success with ‘Winter King;’ notably with the several he planted along a windswept bank of the Annisquam River. ‘Winter King’ is relatively disease and pest free (atypical for members of the Rose Family) and is noted for its profusion of white flowers in May and tight clusters of bright red fruits that persist through the winter. The fruits are usually not eaten by birds until late winter. Crategus viridis is tolerant of poor soils and urban conditions. Crataegus means strength and viridis refers to the greenish bark of the species, however ‘Winter King’s’ bark is more silvery.

Tulip Tree

Welcome Tulip Trees!

The magnificent Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), also called Tulip Poplar or Yellow Poplar, is named and noted for its tulip-shaped flowers. Tulip Trees are native to the eastern United States and are relatively fast growing, without the problem of weak wood strength and the short life span typical of fast growing trees.

Tulip Tree foliage of the newly planted Tulip Trees at St. Peter’s Square, Gloucester

The foliage of the Tulip Tree has a distinct four lobed shape, with a beautiful fluttering habit when caught in the wind. Come fall, the tree is ablaze in brilliant clear yellow. Rich in nectar, Tulip Trees are a major honey plant of the east. In our region the tree typically flowers in June. The nectar also invites songbirds Cardinal and Gold Finch, as well as Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

Liriodendron tulipifera is one of only two species in the genus Liriodendron in the Magnolia Family.

Fun fact from wiki: Native Americans so habitually made their dugout canoes of its trunk that the early settlers west of the Appalachian Mountains called it Canoewood.

Planting Underway at the Gloucester Harbor Walk Gardens

Tulip Trees (Liriodendron tulipifera)

Monday the Tulip Trees were planted at St. Peter’s Square and Tuesday was devoted to Whale Watch and General Store planting areas. Today we are tackling Gus Foote Park. You may notice a few bare spots; not all plants have been delivered. We’ll be adding more to the gardens as they arrive.

Jay Ramsey and his crew from Farm Creek Landscpaping are doing a top-notch job—professional and so enthusiastic. We are all so excited to see the installation of the city’s Harbor Walk gardens underway. I’ll be bringing you information on some of the native beauties we have planted and their value to the landscape and to wildlife. People often ask me why they have so few bees in their garden and I respond, “What have you planted for the bees and for all the pollinators?”  When you plant for the pollinators, they will come!