’JUNE’S GARDEN*
VILLAGE OF FLOWERS
History of Cannon Beach Parks (continued)
As each of the new parks and parking lots
were developed, the city hired independent landscape
contractors to design and install plant material After
the one city park maintenance worker Murry left in
1988, the city contracted part-time maintenance
service, Tim Keller, Fraileys, Coast Re-Hab, and
flexed help.
During the same period members of the
Design Review Board were adopting a series of
changes to the city’s design review ordinances.
Some of these changes applied to more specified
required landscape designs and a supervised
continuous maintenance program for new
developments.
A list of suggested plant material for new
developments had been prepared many years past by
a University of Oregon graduate. The list needed to
be expanded and to be more specific as to location
and conditions of where these plants might best be
placed. Being a member of this board at that time
and having had ‘hands-on’ experience in my own
garden as to what plants would survive our coastal
weather, I expanded the list. With Rainmar Bartl’s
help we mapped locations in the Cannon Beach area
as to where some of the plants listed could be seen.
Bartl also suggested that the city provide a helpful
plant book. Right Plant, Right Place, for developers
to review. This list is still available for sale at City
Hall.
A problem arose for the city when the new
landscape standards were developed. It was evident
that the city’s properties were not meeting the same
standards.
This prevailing problem came before the
Parks and Community Service Board. The Board
recommended to the City Council that a study needed
to be made for a plan as to the best solution for a
long-term maintenance/management program.
Under the direction of this board, I was hired
by the City in July 1989 to serve as a landscape
consultant to compose a plan for long-term
maintenance/management, since I was a member of
both these boards and aware of the existing
concerns.
Dan Elek, city personnel, prepared a dated
history of city properties and a complete summary of
times and cost of maintenance. The summary was
divided into specific areas, 8.39 acres in all.
Additional properties not included but also requiring
maintenance were 30 beach accesses. East Gower
Street that was to be upgraded and landscaped, and
the need for improving the drainage of the infield in
Main Park.
During the two years I served as Landscape
Consultant, from July 1989 - July 1991,1 first
started training Diane Schuttee to become more
familiar with horticulture. The few tools the city
owned, such as shovels, etc., were used by all
Public Works personnel. New hand tools were
needed, which we bought. Schuttee was concerned
that the Public Works personnel would use them and
lose them. Being the only female employee in the
Public Works Department, she painted all the new
tool handles pink. The new tools were never used
by others or lost.
Schuttee and I found the need for the most
attention was the Tolovana Club property that had
been acquired by the city in 1987, and the landscaped
areas around City Hall and mid-town parking. One
Sunday, volunteers John Williams, City Manager;
Don Howell, Public Works Director; Judy Osburn
and Barbara Schwab, Parks and Community Service
Board members; and Schuttee and myself all were
down on our hands and knees weeding the parking
lot by the Council Chambers. We became very
familiar with a plant that has thrived since dinosaurs
walked this world. Horsetail. Historically, Horsetail
(Equisetum species) was used for food, cooking the
young shoots like asparagus, and for scrub-brushes
when fully mature, during the Roman Empire. The
success of our volunteer efforts in trying to eradicate
this plant was nil. They all grew back almost in a
week’s time.
In August 1990 John Williams and I
conducted a tour of all city properties for Mayor
Everett Browning and Council members to review
the state of these properties and to stress the need for
full-time maintenance.
At the next Council meeting I gave a report
that included hours per square foot of landscape
requirements, and a landscape maintenance proposal
John Williams, Dan Elek and I had prepared.
Mayor Browning and the Council voted at
their next meeting for bids to be submitted for full­
time landscape maintenance. An invitation for bids
was published in the Daily Astorian and letters were
sent to landscape companies, ten in all. John
Williams, Dan Elek and 1 also prepared a city bid to
be submitted to Council.
On January 15, 1991, newly-elected Mayor
Herbert Schwab and Council members voted for the
city’s bid over the independent contractors as the city
bid showed labor costs were less per hour, city staff
more familiar with time involved in maintenance
which also meant less supervisory time needed. The
next step was for the city to advertise for a position
to hire a full-time landscape specialist.
In February 1991, Joe Baldin was hired to
fill that position, chosen from several applicants.
Two months after Baldin was hired I was able to
report to City Council and Parks & Community
Service Board as to the many improvements Baldin
had made. In these last eight years he has completed
a full master garden course and gained further
knowledge to become an arboriculturist specialist.
Baldin with part-time help Shay Williams and
others have planted flowering trees, shrubs,
perennials and hundreds of spring bulbs. The
planned landscaping has brought beauty to all city
properties, a full-time maintenance program, and
since 1991 an additional acre has been added to the
city’s upkeep.
******
For the last several years it became a tradition
for a special person, Vi Thompson, and I to celebrate
that what we called ‘true spring’ had arrived,
regardless of the date, as we viewed the beauty of
her Wisteria vine in full bloom. The beauty of this
vine is not only the pendent clusters of lavender
blooms, but it sends out a sweet vanilla-like scent.
The thick stems that twine through the trellis and
porch railings reach to the second floor deck which
lends an architectural-like interest to the historical
home of Vi’s called Wave Crest. Another vine that
blooms earlier. Clematis montana, covers her garage
roof. Observing this vine from the second floor
deck, it casts a delicate creamy color over the roof
and cascades down the side of the building. Both
vines were planted long ago.
Vi’s husband Don was known for his organic
vegetable garden and his formula for composting.
He would start a compost pile March 21 (vernal
equinox), dig it into the soil June 21 (summer
solstice), start another September 22 (autumnal
equinox), dig it into the soil December 22 (winter
solstice). He and Vi would also gather seaweed and
kelp off the beach, washing off the salt water and
cutting it in small pieces to add to the compost. Don
collected leftover vegetable matter from Osburn’s
Grocery to add it also to the pile. The soil in his
garden, because of the added compost, became rich
with nutrients. He planted many different kinds of
vegetables and both he and Vi loved preparing them,
sharing delicious food with many of their guests.
Don died some years ago and because of Vi’s
passion for trees she turned his garden into a small
forest, planting many spruce saplings.
Sadly, Vi d)ed in March before the Wisteria
bloomed, but the ideals and style of life they both
lived will continue on in many of our memories for
us to try and preserve the pristine environment that
surrounds our tiny part of the world.
I’m adding more symbols to Vi’s and my
celebration of spring; the sound of a frog under my
front steps, and watching the flight of a pair of
hummingbirds feeding off the clusters of white
blossoms of my Pieres shrub.
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