Gardening on the edge
Stopping to smell the flowers
By Arlene Marturano marturano@yahoo.com

Safety is always a concern in the garden but when the garden is the City of Columbia, safety must be a priority. "An orange safety vest is sometimes the only barrier between the City of Columbia's landscape and beautification crews and vehicular traffic" states Amy Bledsoe, the city landscape designer.

Often working on the edge of a curb, median or interstate interchange, the crews are like the set designers for a stage play. The stage is the City of Columbia. The mission of the landscape and beautification group is to create and maintain an attractive setting for citizens year- round and to provide visitors with a favorable first impression.

The stage includes 60 sites with from four to 11 set designs (beds) for each site. A full time crew of 11 faces the normal garden challenges of pest control, adequate water, and weeds with additional problems of foot traffic, urban soils, vandalism, and vehicular accidents.

Landscape crews include certified arborists, nursery professionals, landscape technicians, and environmental landscapers. They continue their education through in- house training seminars and workshops.

Carl Blume and Greg Brown install drip irrigation among the new liriope bed at Laurens and Green Streets.

April is an especially demanding time because crews are preparing beds for the warm season annuals. October is another busy time since cool season plants are installed.

Home gardeners can learn what might work well in sunny locations by observing the selection of plants the city uses. Criteria for plant choice include drought- tolerant, low maintenance, long lasting drive by color, and disease resistance. Most sites are sun drenched but in the few locations where overpasses shade plants one finds fatsia, mahonia, and elephant ears. Knock- out roses have been a sensation throughout Columbia along with daylilies, loropetalum, lantana, and gaura. Crinum lilies are foundalong Rosewood Drive. The Chinese fringe tree (Chionanthus retusis) meets pedestrians at eye level with its showy white blossoms in April and May.

New drought tolerant African grass, Melenis 'Savannah' appears this summer.

Amy Bledsoe, landscape designer for the City of Columbia, on the job in Five Points.

Soon homeowners will be able to access landscape plant information through the forestry and beautification department at the city website.

Landscape and beautification crews work closely with the forestry and right- of- way crews. Crew members watch out for each other in dangerous or hazardous conditions and during intense heat. First aid and CPR training are conducted for crews. Examples of on- the- job risktakers are Kim McMichael installing an irrigation head along Elmwood Street with traffic exiting the Interstate, and by Greg Brown and Carl Blume laying irrigation pipe and mulch in a bed between a railroad track and Laurens Street in Five Points. Tim Rushman's forestry crew painstakingly removed a gigantic fallen oak from a legal office downtown. Mike, Clarence, Chris and Skip mowed and weed- wacked the median along Sunset Boulevard behind Palmetto Richland Hospital.

Gardening on the edge is a daily part of their work. Columbians can show appreciation for the City of Columbia's landscape and beautification crews by slowing down in work zones.

Kim McMichael repairs a sprinkler head on the edge of Elmwood Avenue. J.W. (John Walker) has mowed right-of-way for the city 15 years.