Ladies and Gentlemen:
While we know the City of Wheeling already has taken control of the streetscape landscaping along Main Street, we’re not aware who will be responsible for future decisions concerning the maintenance of the “rain gardens” that have been created complete with stormwater bioswales and vegetation.
We attempted to research what the Wallace Pancher group designed and installed from the company’s online portfolio, but the company’s one-page PDF did not include the names of the plants utilized for the project. But thanks to Linda Bierce from the Marshall County Co-Op, we now believe there are dwarf cherry laurels, Elijah blue fescues, and some kind of Panicum grass that’s been included with a few others, and, frankly, we’re not big fans for a few reasons.
For example, only the laurels, we’ve learned, will remain green all year while the others die back and go dark. That, folks, will not provide beauty during the colder months of the year, and the garden areas are far too significant in this $37 million streetscape for that to be acceptable.
So, respectfully, we would like to suggest the Boxwood Shrub (pictured above) as the replacement to complement the new trees because we believe the dense foliage would solve this multi-faceted issue. The hedges would remain green year-round, they would be easily pruned and sculpted into whatever shapes desired, and the vegetation would fill the concrete areas with a bush that can break a human being’s fall. And that matters.
Win. Win. Win..
Sincerely,
Safety First
