Mother’s Day Disappointment

Every Mother’s Day our daughter and I take my mother to Dewald Gardens purchase plants for her Mother’s Day present. Dewald’s was my favorite place to go for plants, so naturally last year when we decided to put in the rain garden, I went to Dewald’s to purchase the plants. We also had agreed to participate in the home and garden tour for the neighborhood association, so we purchased many more plants from Dewald’s to redo an area of the back yard. During many discussions with Rhea, we were led to believe they would stand behind their plants and at one point when we thought the milkweed was dying; they had offered to replace it. We gave Dewald Garden a lot of free publicity, our rain garden was featured in the newspaper and now on public access and we always mentioned Dewald’s. We even put a small sign in the rain garden advertising for them during the home tour along with telling everyone how they were a great place to go and they would stand behind their plants. We believe this is part of the reason Dewald’s is one of the city’s selected gardens to purchase plants for the city’s rain garden program.

Imagine my surprise when on Mother’s Day I spoke with Rhea about several of the plants that did not make it over the winter I was told “We don’t do that.” with a shrug. My heart sank. We lost all six of the Cardinal Flowers they recommended for our garden, I had even mentioned I have had problems with Cardinal Flower in the past and was told I should have no problem with these. We lost about 14 plants in all. Anyone who shops at Dewald’s knows these plant were not cheap and some of the plants we could have purchased at Lowes, (they stand behind their plants.) for less money. Our mistake, trying to support this local business.

So Ready for Spring!!!!!!

We went to the Home and Garden Show at the Memorial Coliseum on Sunday. It was so nice to see flowers and new ideas. Now I really have spring fever. We had a chance to speak with the representatives from the city about the rain garden program and we were happy to see they had a rain barrel on display and instructions on making them. We also had a chance to speak with Rhea Gratz from Dewald Gardens; she was excited to tell us that Dewald Gardens in on the city’s list of the places to go for information on rain gardens.

I am ready to finish cleaning up the twigs from the ice storm and dig in the dirt. I am also anxious to see if the was any damage to our rain garden from the tree falling on it and then the people walking in it to cut up the tree. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

We are looking forward to so many things. It won’t be long before we will be watching baseball at Parkview Field, going on our evening bike rides, planting flowers, going to the Patio at the Gas House, (I am having Saloon Salad withdrawal.), walking downtown for the various events, and spending long hours on the front porches of the Rivermet Gang.

Why Do We Need Rain Gardens?

Why do we need rain gardens? Rainwater run off contributes to about 70 percent of the pollution in our rivers. Cleaner rivers are a goal of ours and we love to garden, so planting a rain garden, and installing rain barrels is a natural solution for us. Rain gardens are low maintenance and we are keeping the water where nature intended. The water soaks back into the soil and into the aquifer. Planting a rain garden may seem like a small part, but once you realize the amount of run off from you roof you would be amazed. Fittingly we planted our garden in the pouring rain on Mother’s Day and we know we kept over 400 gallons of rainwater from going into the sewers in that one day; we have not had standing water for more then a few hours.

I am so glad we installed rain barrels. Not only have we kept a large amount of water from the storm sewers; we have had free water for out plants during this dry August.