By Bob Banks, Paulding Master Gardener Extension Volunteer
With the virus spreading apprehension among the mostly “mature” Paulding County Master Gardeners and the limiting of volunteer opportunities, many of us retreated to our yards and gardens. The results were amazing and lasting reminders that working in the garden can be therapeutic and healthy, while adding beauty to our surroundings.
Marsha Rauscher of Dallas had a fountain that just never worked and planted it to use for the edge of her shade garden. Most are perennials with some annuals added for more color. The window box is her most recent project with dwarf knockout roses, Angelonia, petunia, red geranium and stevia fern for year-round color. She will see what works best for next year.
As Shirley Davey of Acworth tends to get bored very quickly, her projects during this period of near isolation have been plentiful. With the help of her patient husband, Mark, she has transformed her yard dramatically. Her first endeavor was a copper rain chain, followed by her first Cairn Inukshuk. Used as a trail marker in Inuit culture, an Inukshuk can take many forms. It is usually represented by rocks formed into a human shape. An ongoing work enhanced an unsightly area adjacent to a former RV parking pad, which was utilized for propagating plants for next year’s Paulding County Master Gardener Plant Sale! She notes, “It has enough light, access to water and is highly visible each time I walk out onto my porch.”
While trying to correct a drainage problem, Bob Banks of Douglasville chose to redirect the rainwater and add an extensive circle garden. Using 2500 pounds of pond rocks and 180 bricks, he constructed a path through pine bark and developed a 10-foot circle bed with an angel fountain. With the help of Mickey Gazaway of Elrod’s Nursery, he chose appropriate plants to enhance the beauty while staying small and colorful.
Many of those many garden projects that we all put off for lack of time have been completed. However, any gardener will tell you, that new ones will always arise in our pandemic paradise and beyond. The pandemic has just given us a great opportunity to shelter in our garden places.
The author of this article, Bob Banks, is a Paulding County Master Gardener Extension Volunteer. As representatives of the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension, Master Gardener Extension Volunteers are trained experts, who answer questions about home horticulture, sustainable landscaping, and environmentally friendly gardening practices using unbiased, research-based information from the University of Georgia. For more information on gardening, contact Paulding County UGA Extension at 770-443-7616 or check us out online at www.ugaextension.org/paulding.
