Dayton "Dirt' July 18, 2009

In all of my recent blogs, I have been silent about the progress of our botanical display garden called Wolf Creek Gardens.

The reason for my silence is that while we have made much progress in the plantings, installation of water lines and road building, there is still more to do. More plantings are going on right now in our dwarf conifer garden and Rhodoendron-Azalea garden. Another planting underway is a large island of perennials and shrubs to display ribbons of color in the summer!

Perhaps the largest project is the construction of a barn to be used for offices, produce market and a seminar room as a gateway to the garden.

The barn will be of a style of a Wisconsin dairy barn with a gambrel roof similar to the one that stood on the property for almost 100 years on the same site before it burned in 1963.

My hope is to open the garden by the spring of 2010 even though much work will still be in progress.

Much of the planting has been going on for 3 years so that some of the plants are becoming well-established.

The established plants include a collection of European Beech varieties, Dogwood cultivars, Eastern Redbuds, Rhododendrons, Azaleas, numerous pines, firs and spruce as well as a hedge row of tall western red cedar. The purpose of the garden will be foremost educational but my hope is that many of you that come to visit us will simply enjoy walking through the garden.

Back to work for me.

Tom