Terry L. Ettinger Horticulture Consulting Services
Meeting The Needs Of Today With A Vision For The Future
Landscape Project Gallery
Urban Plaza
Anchored
by the I.M. Pei-designed Everson Museum of Art (at the upper edge of
the photo at right), this large public plaza in the heart of
downtown Syracuse (photo at right) presented a series of challenges
common to many urban spaces - significant reflected heat from paved
surfaces, extremely compacted soils mixed with construction rubble,
exposure to large amounts of
deicing materials during the winter
months and, of course, an extremely limited budget for ongoing
maintenance.
Charged with creating "lush" plantings throughout
the site that would be attractive all year - with limited
maintenance, I settled on a palette of prairie-type perennials and
ornamental grasses that could tolerate extended periods of dry
weather once established (above, at right). And, in those areas exposed to deicing
materials, I
employed massed plantings of long-blooming catmint (Nepeta),
daylilies (Hemerocallis), bluestars (Amsonia) and valarian (Centranthus)
(photos at right and below).
In addition to exposure to deicing materials, plant
materials throughout the site must tolerate damage caused by
snow-removal
equipment and potential stockpiling of salt-laden snow
for several months during the winter (photo below, at right).
To repair this damage, almost all of the perennials
and ornamental grasses can be divided and transplanted as necessary
to fill open spaces. In fact, it is anticipated that many of plant
materials within these plantings will be divided every two or
three
years to provide transplants for existing and new landscape
plantings at other County of Onondaga-owned facilities.