In 2011, we again branched out in a new direction, redesigning and rebuilding the garden in front of the Laundry in Wurtsboro. This is a prominent business, with lots of round-the-clock visitors, so we added a bench, buckets for spent cigarettes, a thick bed of mulch, lots of new plants, planters, rain barrels, and an amazing custom-made climbing arbor for beautiful clematis. The garden is filled with perennial plants that increase their splendor each year, along with self-seeding annuals, and yearly annual plantings.
In 2012, leveraging the success of 2011, we refreshed the laundry garden with new mulch and new plants and then expanded it to include a large new planter and five additional planters to spruce up the Wurtsboro Antiques building. The planters are designed to coordinate with the laundry garden. These two gardens, in conjunction with the Veteran’s Park, directly across the street, create a warm image for the village.
Also in 2012, the team began work with a BKAA environmental “team-mate”, the Delaware Highlands Conservancy. The Conservancy has a field office in Bethel, NY, that was once a family farm. The Conservancy uses the property not only as an office, but also for education, training and functions. The Come Clean team worked with the Conservancy leadership to spruce up the yard to make it pleasing, welcoming, and to create natural inspiration.
In 2014, armed with another Sullivan Renaissance Grant, we coordinated with BKAA leadership, Emma Chase Elementary School, and the property owner at the corner of Haven Road and Route 209 to create a Garden that would serve as a “Welcome” point for the Basha Kill. This “Gateway to the Basha Kill” project included two varieties of evergreen trees, shrubs, perennials, including herbs, ground cover, and bulbs, as well as annuals, along with Bird Houses and rock effects. In spite of a dreadfully hot, dry summer, the trees not only survived, but flourished. The garden is supplied with fresh annuals each summer to ensure a welcoming visual inspiration for visitors, deer, woodchucks, and nesting swallows, alike.
-by Cathy Dawkins and Patricia Diness