Steering Committee: Friends of PC Original Landscaping
Examples of the original, lush, free-flowing, green Pelican Cove landscaping
THIS IS A SHORT, CONDENSED VERSION OF THE ORIGINAL REPORT.IF YOU WISH MORE DETAIL AND PICTURES , CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL, LONGER REPORT
More examples of the original, lush, free-flowing, green Pelican Cove landscaping
Examples of the original, green, lush, free-flowing, natural looking Pelican Cove landscaping
A PLAN FOR PRESERVING PELICAN COVE’S
UNIQUE, ORIGINAL LANDSCAPING
We are a group of long-time residents of Pelican Cove (Friends of PC Original Landscaping) who believe that the unique semi-tropical beauty of the landscaping is being severely diminished due to several landscaping decisions made by the Grounds Committee and Grounds Manager over the past 2-3 years.
We also believe that most of these problems would have never occurred if a qualified landscape designer had been called in.
This is one of the changes we think is necessary: the separation of landscape design activities from landscape maintenance.
We also believe the creation of a Landscape Design Committee is necessary in order to insure that new designs conform to the original natural-looking landscape design.
This is critical because we expect that the ongoing removal of invasive plants will make additional re-landscaping necessary in many areas of Pelican Cove.
We will not only lose the unique beauty and restorative energy of our landscaping but our property values will suffer as well.
Those of you who have lived here for longer than 3 years know how dismal many of the changes have been to our tree canopy and our beautiful, lush landscaping.
We are circulating this report among all residents of PC in order to gain the support necessary to petition the Grounds Committee to stop this degradation of our original, magnificent landscape.
The original lush, natural-looking landscaping
Over the past years, we (and many others) have tried to make our views known to the Grounds Manager but have been completely ignored.
Instead, the Grounds Manager has continued to implement a mechanical landscape design of his own that clashes violently with the lush, semi-tropical landscaping we inherited. In addition, he has continued to act on his own without notifying residents of the changes to their neighborhoods.
The Grounds Manager was hired to maintain our grounds and trees and he has done a good job.
That does not mean he is free to ignore the original design and implement his own so as to forever change our once magnificent landscape.
The Grounds Manager has made the claim that the new landscaping is the result of water-saving recommendations made by the Board, but that is a half-truth. There are plenty of native, hardy, drought-resistant shrubs that complement the original landscaping that he has chosen not to use.
The kinds of hardy, native plants available (above)
The truth of the matter is that the small shrub, mechanical landscaping implemented by the Grounds Manager is the result of his own design preference, which is completely at odds with the original landscaping design.
An example of the mechanical, small shrub landscaping
introduced by the Grounds Manager.
An experienced landscape designer should have been called in.
We want to make it clear we are not talking about the maintenance of the grounds, which has been by and large a good effort.
That problem is the unwarranted introduction of a mechanical landscaping scheme completely at odds with the original design.
The new, inferior, mechanical landscaping design
It has already affected the look of large areas of Pelican Cove and is SEVERELY DEGRADING OUR ONCE MAGNIFICENT LANDSCAPING.
As of March 2009, The major damaged areas are:
1. the Entrance to PC at the Bird Sanctuary,
2.the entire parking area of Boathouse Circle
3.the general Brookhouse area (but in particular in front of unit 1687 along Vamo Road)
4. the Grovehouse area behind unit 1628.
Some Questions and Answers You need to Know
Personal Observations by the Chairman of Steering Committee, Justin Spring
What is happening to the Landscape?
The magnificent landscape we acquired in 1978 remained essentially undisturbed for 26 years except for replacement of plants and trees damaged by age, disease or storms.
For his own reasons, Mike O'Byrne, our Current Grounds Manager, whose job is to maintain and preserve the landscape, re-interpreted preserve to mean CHANGE.
I believe this was done with the best of intentions on the Grounds Manager's part, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. We are living with the unintended consequences.
More to the point, the Grounds Manager has ignored complaints as to the new designs and has since gone on to implement that same inferior landscaping in several other areas of Pelican Cove, much to the outrage of knowledgeable residents.
Why did the Grounds Manager re-interpret his job description?
The Grounds Manager is a good landscape MAINTENANCE manager with many good ideas. He is ambitious and wants to promote these ideas. That’s all to the good for Pelican Cove.
Unfortunately, some of his ideas have caused critical problems and he has refused to modify them in any way. They are detailed in this report, because they are affecting the quality of our once magnificent landscape.
One of the major problems is the new, mechanical landscape designs introduced by the by the Grounds Manager.
The Grounds Manager is not an experienced, accomplished landscape designer of the level required by Pelican Cove.
His mechanical designs clash violently with the original, lush, natural-looking designs that made Pelican Cove a treasure. Even a cursory examination of the areas he had redone will bear this out.
An experienced landscape designer should have been called in.
The Grounds Manager's landscaping
One has only to look at the redesigned areas to see the exhibit limited sense of color and a very limited sense of good spatial design.
It is also clear that the designer either ignored or was unaware of the classic design principles that guided the original, lush, semi-tropical design. An experienced designer would have complemented the original beautiful design.
The Grounds Manager has since attempted to explain his designs by saying that the new low water /low maintenance/ native landscaping rules determined the design, implying that the original plants weren’t indigenous naturally occurring plants.
This is complete nonsense: the major original plants were green ferns, shade tolerant shrubs, grasses, and various shade tolerant palms. All occur naturally, have low maintenance and water needs, and are perfect for shady
The real problem is that the Grounds Manager prefers his own idea of landscaping over the original, lush design, despite the fact that his designs are completely at odds with the original design, which was a masterpiece.
One of the mechanical, redesigned landscapes at the entrance to PC
The disastrous landscaping on Boathouse Circle
The original lush Pelican Cove landscaping
What are the factors involved in this sudden spurt of re-landscaping?
1. One factor was a change in General Manager. When Kevin Richards took over 3 years ago as the new GM, Kevin gave Mike a free hand. I believe this was probably due to the fact he was faced with pressing financial matters and perhaps also because he lacked the landscape experience of the previous General Manager, Bob Malan, who was a horticulturist.
I believe that Kevin Richards, the General Manager, currently has a much clearer picture of the effect of the Grounds Manager's designs on the landscaping.
However, Boathouse Circle and several additional large areas have already been completely and disastrously re-landscaped. They are the subject of this report and are evidence for our claims. The pictures speak for themselves.
2. The second factor is the Grounds Manager 's mistaken belief that he has the kind of sophisticated eye and training required to create a landscape that will blend with the original sophisticated design of PC. A glance at the Appendix explains why the colored shrubbery introduced by the Ground Manager (red crotons, cordelyne purple star) will eventually severely diminish the healing, invigorating effects of our once completely green landscape.
3. The third factor is the introduction of grants which gave the PC Grounds staff monies to remove invasive plants. Because the Grounds Manager has chosen to remove everything, not just the invasive plants, a complete re-landscaping has been required, such as the Bird Sanctuary at the entrance to PC, and the Vamo end of
What can we do about this mess?
It is our feeling that Kevin Richards, the Grounds Committee have to act NOW to stop all landscape redesign activities until the various boards resume in the fall and can make an informed decision.
The only exception we would make to this general stoppage would be the various tree replacement and vaccination programs that have been approved by the various boards, committees and, most importantly, the residents involved.
For a lasting solution, I feel the following has to be implemented by management and the board as soon as they reconvene in the fall:
- Create a Landscape Design Committee to pass on any new landscaping design. This capability is completely lacking in the current Grounds Committee.
- Limit the Grounds Manager's activities solely to maintenance of existing landscape.
- Make provision for hiring a landscape design consultant when redesign is required.
- Re-examine the rationale/ benefits of invasive plant removal .If it continues as is, large areas of PC will have to be re-landscaped
END OF REPORT. PREPARED MARCH 24, 2009
Members of the Steering Committee
Friends of PC Original Landscaping
Justin Spring , Chairman 306 1119 springjustin@yahoo.com
Joan Adley
Irving Bennett
Alison Brown
Jackie Caplan
Jean Germain
Janet Hemond
Kim Kessler
Leonard Kessler
Karen McGrath
Sol Schwartz
Condensed Appendix To Condensed Report:
A report on the effect of Colored shrubs on the beauty of the original landscaping at PC by Justin Spring
(previously printed in PC Newsletter/ this is a condensed version)
We are in the process of losing the treasure we were given in 1979.
When I moved here in 1979, the PC landscape was clearly the equal of the gardens of .....our own Selby Gardens......our landscaping was planted along the same rules that have governed the creation of serious landscaped gardens for hundreds of years.
This was no accident. The creator of our landscaping (and first grounds manager) was a highly skilled woman, a graduate of the Cornell school for Landscape Architecture, the Harvard of landscaping. I believe she would be appalled by what has happened to out landscaping. Here’s why:
The rules she followed are known to all serious landscape designers:
1) Beauty is achieved by the creating a collage of differing shades and shapes of green foliage. This rule is critical because green is the color that we subconsciously react to in the most positive way. We feel renewed, reborn, refreshed simply by looking at green foliage. It is in our genes.
2) Additional color is introduced by the natural flowers belonging to that green foliage, e.g., roses, hibiscus, oleander, penta, alamanda, Mexican petunia, orchid trees, jacaranda tree, and magnolia tree to name just a few. ......
There is no good reason for these rules to have been ignored by planting an inferior form of shrub, and in particular I mean the large orange/yellow/black shrubs, the squiggly red/yellow/black shrubs, and the tall muddy red/purple shrubs that are increasingly a part of our landscape.......
Unfortunately the color combinations of their leaves have exactly the opposite effect of green foliage: they are the colors of depression, illness, irritation, dying. Their colors are not the simple, bright colors of naturally flowering shrubs.......If you have any doubt about their power, I suggest you Google the disturbing work of the great English painter Francis Bacon, who uses these same palettes.
The ability of these palettes to irritate, disturb and depress is immediately evident to the practiced color eye of those of us who are artists and painters and photographers. To others it may not be immediately apparent, but like the canary in the mine, I can assure you if these colored shrubs aren’t terminated, the botanical masterpiece we inherited 30 ears ago will no longer refresh and renew us.
In some sections of PC, where the ratio of these plants to the green foliage is already 30% or more, the ability of these unbecoming shrubs to visually block out the surrounding green and deliver their own disturbing message is more than evident.
This is the reason why you won’t see any of these horrid colored shrubs in Selby gardens.....
My estimate is that if we continue planting them at the current rate,.... our landscaping will begin to irritate and depress us on a subconscious level. We won’t like looking at it and will tend to look away. We will want to go inside."
End of condensed appendix to report
Preserving Our Original Landscaping
What follows is a report on the landscaping of Boathouse Circle.
It is a separate report and has nothing to do with
the report on
Preserving our Original PC Landscaping
which ended above
The plantings for Boathouse Circle proposed by the Grounds Manager in 2008 are by and large not suitable. It should be redesigned to be more in line with the original landscaping of Pelican Cove.
Here are the specific objections. The details follow:
1. Ixora 'Nora Grant' is a bad choice for tips of parking islands. It is a boxy hedge that does nothing to offset the dense garages. Something flowing and luxuriant like ferns are required. Also it is not suitable for the shady Boathouse Circle area, and the flowers will not appear. Here are the gardening instructions ( in blue) backing up my observations:
“Almost all ixoras do best in full sun, acid soil, free from nematodes, a moist organic mix that is also well drained. Ixora can endure some salt spray on the wind. Planted in shady areas or with excess water on leaves, sooty mold usually sets in. ..... typical hedge pruning cuts off most of the stem tips from which flowers emerge."
2. The Gold Mound plants introduce more colored foliage, in this case yellow leaves. It is a small hedgy plant. We need tall, green flowing plants Also it is not suitable for the shady Boathouse Circle area. Here are the gardening instructions backing up my observation:
Ornamental Characteristics
Foliage Color Yellow
height 12-24" (Medium)
Exposure
Sun or partial sun
3. Beautyberry is a good choice because it does well in shade and it is a flowing green plant with small flowers and red berries. If the plant indicated in the Grounds managers BluePrint is the one that grows 6-8 feet it will be excellent.
We need taller plants like this, not small, dumpy ones. Here are the gardening instructions in blue backing up my observation.
About This Plant
Fast-growing deciduous shrubs, beautyberries grow 4 to 8 feet tall and wide. Plant them in a natural woodland setting under tall shade trees or as an informal hedge along the perimeter of a property. Beautyberries have small, lavender-pink, lilac-like flowers in spring, followed by vivid purple or white berries in fall. The berries attract birds, as well as provide winter color. Although the berries are edible, they aren't the most desired food of birds and often hang on the bush into late winter. The foliage turns an attractive yellow in fall.4.Variegated Arbicola. This plant is essentially another yellow plant. Yellow is the color of distress. We need green plants. It is used everywhere in PC. We need much better variety.
the size, light and watering needs are fine but its color is offensive. The blue gardening instructions back up my observations.
Schefflera arbicola 'Gold Capella'
Variegated Hawaiian Elf Schefflera
Araliaceae
Schefflera arbicola 'Gold Capella', or Variegated Hawaiian Elf Schefflera, is a cultivar of Schefflera arbicola with shiny green with golden yellow variegation. Leaves are palmately compound with 7-9 leaflets. Plants may reach a height of 10 feet (3 m) in height with an equal spread.
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6.. The proposed island cut back (1 ½ -2 feet) of the existing islands between garages will not allow the plants on the tips to combat the boxy rectangular garage frames. The plants will be hidden by cars. See picture below. The entire enlarged planter area would be lost:
Again, beauty is sacrificed for neatness. The plants on tips of islands are critical in drawing the eye away from the boxy, dense garages.
The proposed new landscaping for Bathouse Crcle suffers from the same faults as all of the new landscaping done by the Grounds Manager. It is a hodgepodge of boxy plants, rudimentary in design and completely at odds with the original landscaping
Finally no provision has been made for placing ground cover in the bare lot opposite over half the units on Boathouse Circle. This is an eyesore and contributes to the depressing look of Boathouse Circle. It should have been done years ago rather than the plum tree replacement and bird sanctuary replacements which serve no purpose.
The bare lot facing half the houses on Boathouse Circle is a disgrace. any talented landscape designer would have planted gorundcover as part of the Boathouse Circle landscaping.
Wedelia would make an excellent groundcover for the bare lot and is used in similar areas of PC ( see picture above of wedelia behind Wilbanks in similar shady area.) It is cheap and durable. Strips planted today wil cover the entire area within 2 years. The wedelia would dramatically increase the beauty of the lot and thus diminish the harsh, visual impact of the dense parking garages.
this report on Boathouse Circle landscaping
was prepared by Justin Spring
contact info; comments welcome:
justin spring 306-1119 1620 Boathouse Circle gr201
springjustin@yahoo.com
