Hartman's Rock Garden
Back in 1932 HG (Ben) Hartman began working on this project which occupied him until lhis passing in 1944. Family members kept the site up for some 60 years after until it got to be too much. In 2008, we discovered this property that was by then sorely neglected. With permission from the family, we did a super charged half day cleanup that paved the way for what was to take place about a year later. The Kohler Foundation purchased the property, and has since restored it in most part to its original condition.
This innitial phase of this cleanup project lasted only 4 1/2 hours and included help from my wife Brenda, my daughter Lindsey, and my son Michael. ny{See best before and after photos further down page}
Although most of the overgrowth of weed trees (some over 15 feet tall) was contained to the back (west) end of the garden, all planters, beds, and paths were saturated with heavy weed growth.
Our first target was the numerous planters. After completely loosening the dirt and removing all weed growth (roots and all), we planted annuals and covered with a thick layer of compost.
Next, we deep weeded two of the numerous circular beds, turning all of the soil before planting with perennials (with the exception of the burgundy leafed annual in center). The bed on left was covered with compost, while the right bed shows how much darker the mulch is than the rich soil we were planting in.
Finally, all of the trees and weedy shrubs were cut down from the back of the garden revealing numerous structures that were previously blocked from view. All of this heavy material was hauled across the street to the other section of property to be chipped into mulch at a future time.
Started to weed . . . shows how soil was turned and loosened.
These two planters can be seen in photos of back end of garden.
This photo typifies the weedy state of the garden . . . beds and paths.
Here is a photo taken after we were done for the day. Notice the portion of the walk where I edged back both sides . . . then where I edged back only the right side . . . and finally the remainder of the walkway that I did not touch at all.
Below:reminder of what it looked like before!
Left and center of back of garden after overgrowth was removed.
Right and center of back of garden after overgrowth was removed.
Here are just a few of the treasures we uncovered.
