Garden Expansion Started
March 20, 2018
By ELLIE POTTER
Daily News-Record 3/17/18
HARRISONBURG — Harrisonburg Parks and Recreation Department staff began the first phase of expanding the Welcome Home Garden this week.
In November, Deputy City Manager Ande Banks, who was acting as interim city manager at the time, asked City Council for the go-ahead to expand the garden, a quiet area dedicated to veterans behind the old municipal building on South Main Street.
Once complete, the garden will stretch further south and along the south side of the building.
The project does not have a budget, Banks said Thursday, and local groups and businesses are donating most of the materials. The Harrisonburg Farmers Market will donate seating and The Natural Garden, a landscape architecture firm in Rockingham County, will provide plants for the additional space in the coming months.
Fine Earth, a local landscaping company, designed the original garden. Once staff heard the city was interested in expanding it, Fine Earth volunteered to design the addition as well.
The city is providing flagstone to cover the ground through existing budgets, Banks said. He wants the newseating area to give people visiting the garden or market a place to sit and relax.
The project was delayed a few months because of the cold weather, he said, but staff anticipate it will be completed sometime this spring or summer depending on the weather and planting season.
Contact Ellie Potter at 574-6286 or epotter@dnronline.com
ABOVE: Mike Hott works on a stone walkway that will be part of the Welcome Home Garden outside of City Hall on Thursday. BELOW: Luis Ponce (left), a crew member with Harrisonburg Parks and Recreation, and Hott, the landscape manager, cut stone slabs for the garden on Wednesday.
Daily News-Record 3/17/18
HARRISONBURG — Harrisonburg Parks and Recreation Department staff began the first phase of expanding the Welcome Home Garden this week.
In November, Deputy City Manager Ande Banks, who was acting as interim city manager at the time, asked City Council for the go-ahead to expand the garden, a quiet area dedicated to veterans behind the old municipal building on South Main Street.
Once complete, the garden will stretch further south and along the south side of the building.
The project does not have a budget, Banks said Thursday, and local groups and businesses are donating most of the materials. The Harrisonburg Farmers Market will donate seating and The Natural Garden, a landscape architecture firm in Rockingham County, will provide plants for the additional space in the coming months.
Fine Earth, a local landscaping company, designed the original garden. Once staff heard the city was interested in expanding it, Fine Earth volunteered to design the addition as well.
The city is providing flagstone to cover the ground through existing budgets, Banks said. He wants the newseating area to give people visiting the garden or market a place to sit and relax.
The project was delayed a few months because of the cold weather, he said, but staff anticipate it will be completed sometime this spring or summer depending on the weather and planting season.
Contact Ellie Potter at 574-6286 or epotter@dnronline.com
ABOVE: Mike Hott works on a stone walkway that will be part of the Welcome Home Garden outside of City Hall on Thursday. BELOW: Luis Ponce (left), a crew member with Harrisonburg Parks and Recreation, and Hott, the landscape manager, cut stone slabs for the garden on Wednesday.
