KUL KAH HAN NATIVE PLANT DEMONSTRATION GARDEN

2012 (January-July) Progress Update

One of the major decisions we made this year, with encouragement from
Jill Silver, was to form a Steering Committee to oversee the completion of 6
vital infrastructure projects by the end of November. These include over
350ʼ of new pathways, 300ʼ of rock edging, updated water catchment
system,108 new plant i.d.signs, a garden map, a brochure and a kiosk in
which to display them.

Committee Members who meet monthly are Jill Bacchieri,Eve Dixon,
Shannon Glass, Bill Irwin, Linda Landkammer, Pat Pearson, Carol Scrol, Jill
Silver, and Fred Weinmann. If it is any indication of our progress so far, our list
of activities needed/completed has grown from one page to five pages as of July 5th.

PATHS:
Volunteers, Lou Slagle and Michael Hill scraped and dug long stretches of
new paths.
Gravel was donated and delivered by Sean Mason of Shine Quarry, Bill
Irwin, retired Contractor and Dick Shold of Elite Trucking. Molly Hilt, Parks
Forewoman, spread the grave with a tractor. The paths to be hand dug
have been laid out by Linda Landkammer and will be dug and raked by
volunteers soon.

SIGNAGE:
Several people, (Robin Nye, Jill Bacchieri, Eve Dixon, Ellen Larkin and the
Master Gardener Plant Clinic folks) are working on filling out our plant
signage templates with descriptive terms to be used in writing the final text
on 100 new signs. Linda has begun composing and typing them into the 

7”X5” sized format to be inserted into our new metal signs, obtained from a
JeffCo Master Gardener Foundation grant. Ellen Larkin is helping Linda
stay technically on track on the computer. A big thank you to Gary, owner of
The Sign Station for donating the lettering for our 7 Ecosystem signs.

ROCK WORK:
Eve Dixon and Linda began a stretch of rock edging in the Subalpine area and will
continue when their calendars allow. The 300ʼ needed around the Kitchen Shelter beds are
now on hold until the landscapers (Matt Berberich and Chris Stepanski) who originally
committed to building them, are available to do the work.
GARDEN MAP and BROCHURE:
We are fortunate to have Shannon Glass, W.S.R.C Plan Reviewer, working on the
design of both these items and look forward to placing them in our kiosk by
around October to provide some beautiful and useful educational products
for our visitors.

KIOSK:
Because of the many focused hours spent on this project by Bill Irwin, we
now have a professional design, a list of needed materials and a carpenter
to build it for us. Jill Bacchieri is helping to seek the needed funding.
(Approx $900)

WATER CATCHMENT/RAINGARDEN SYSTEM:
Jeff Jones removed and cleaned all of our rain barrels so we could continue collecting the
rainwater that was so plentiful this spring.
Dan Shaw of Giraffe Gutters (at the request of Bill Irwin) installed an additional downspout to
expand our dispersal options.

NURSERY:
Patty Ferry, our Nursery Manager, has potted up, watered and delivered plants to their points of sale at
the Gardens at 4 Corners and the Master Gardener Plant Sale this year. Weʼve taken in over $100 so far
which we will use to purchase additional new species. Patty has taken all of our plants for future sales to her
home where she will continue to pot up and water and care for them. Linda recently reorganized the
remaining available space in the nursery and noted at least 250 plants waiting to be planted in the garden
areas in the fall.

Daniella Chace, artist, created this poster for us to advertise that our plants would be available at the MG Plant Sale in May.

PUBLICITY:
For a couple of months this Spring, Master Gardener, Janine Scott
accomplished several important publicity tasks. Christina Lacie has now
offered to continue this job that notifies the community of the benefits they
can enjoy from the demo garden and of the various
ways they might play a part in its development.

WEBSITE:
Stephanie Weir, from Pam Robertʼs 4-H Office at WSU helped to make
changes and additions to our WordPress website. She has graduated and
we now need someone to continue this job. Please call Linda if you know
Wordpress and can help a couple of hours once in a while.

GENERAL GARDEN DEVELOPMENT:
For a couple of months in the late winter, Gene Brandon served as our
Meadow Steward, getting us nicely started on our new lawn substitute
area. In order to continue forward with the planning and planting, we now
need a new Steward to oversee this exciting addition showing several
different plant combinations. This person, with support from others,                                                                                                    will coordinate the planting of this area in the Fall.
In addition, we completed the area around our Dry Forest hose bib with a
deep layer of small rocks with help from our regular volunteers, Jesse
Latham and Mike Hayward. They work hard for us but find ways to give us
all a laugh as well.

Ann Evans, our steadfast weeder this Spring, slowly and surely cleared the
weeds that became way too numerous due to the constant rains. She and                                                                                      

Robin Nye also helped us deal with a serious horsetail outbreak.
Robin cleared a 12ʼ diameter area at the end of the Dry Forest area and
planted 12” tall Erigeron speciosus.

These plants have recently filled in this meadow in the Alder Grove with
their purple blossoms.

Jill Bacchieri bravely climbed the 12ʼ ladder to help us limb up cedars and
firs that were competing with our other plants in the Forest edge.

Richard Doherty helped build and install new signs and assisted with our
tree limbing.

Please call or email Linda at 379-8733 or wild4nature@q.com if you can
help us for awhile between now and the end of September.

We really need you and will appreciate your contributions.