Nick`s Tips October 2014 - Betty Ford Alpine Gardens

Nick’s Tips October 2014
For the past 2 years, Ford Park has been getting a huge makeover. Many areas of the park such
as the fields, parking lots, bathrooms, and entrance to the Gerald Ford Amphitheater had
become outdated and needed improvement. With a voter approved plan to improve some of
these areas with unused conference center money, Ford Park looks better than ever. The latest
part of the construction this summer was finishing the connection between the ball fields and
the Gardens. This project was my first large scale design and build project for the Gardens and
the process of seeing it evolve from start to finish was very rewarding.
So, how does a project like this come to fruition? Below is the story of how it evolved.
1. Last fall, work began on the new Gerald Ford Amphitheater lobby and several large
limestone rocks and flagstone pavers that belonged to the Gardens were to be
removed. Simply throwing away these unique rocks would have been both costly and a
waste. We realized that they might form the cornerstone for the NE Entrance project.
2. In January, Todd Oppenheimer (Town
of Vail Capital Projects Manager, and
Landscape Architect), Nicola and I met
to review an existing plan for the
entrance from the Ford Park Master
Planning meetings. With Todd’s
expertise and design skills he and I
went to the drawing board and came
up with a new and modified design.
3. The purpose of this area was to be a
new entrance where guests would be
able to see the gardens from a distance (unlike before) and where visiting groups could
meet. The guest would enter a forecourt area where benches and a gate would greet
them, taking them into a totally new part of Ford Park.
4. Plant Selection – Taking many cultural factors into account, such as sunlight and slope, I
based my selections on the proximity to the Alpine Rock Garden and the unique
limestone boulders themselves. This was an opportunity to use plants such as
Saxifrages, Heuchera, Cyclamen and other rock garden plants that prefer a little less sun.
The exception was the island bed where many small and native alpines were selected.
Larger areas, behind the large rocks, were
opportunities to plant deciduous shrubs, dwarf
conifers, and hardy perennials. Plants were selected
and bought from specialty growers and nurseries from
Colorado to Canada.
5. Gate Design – The existing Aspen woodland garden is
adjacent to this new entry and became the basis for the design. Wopo Holop, a
Colorado artist, was brought in to draw and design the
gate, which was to look like an aspen stand.
6. Demolition – The grade differences and design called
for a few trees to be removed as well as the old
compost bins. The excavation took only a few days
and grades started to match with the ball field path.
Weather was cooperating and it started to look like
something I had been imagining for the past 8
months.
7. Boulder placement – This was the most critical and
exciting part of the project. Because of the unique
shapes and sizes of the limestone boulders, it had to
be done as a ‘design build’ (designed on the site). The
boulders were in a massive pile which made it a little
difficult to read each side. Based on some experience,
input and some pondering, I marked each boulder
with tape and its relative location to each side of the
garden. I began with the largest and worked from one
side of the east bed to the right. My biggest fear of
placing each boulder was having it look like a manmade
retaining wall. To the maximum extent possible, I
wanted it to look like it had been there all along and
nature had created it. Some of the boulders weighed
several tons and it took several days to place each
boulder, with 4 guys and a giant loader carrying each
boulder carefully strapped. Patience was the name of
the game for this part of the project. Each boulder was
so unique and each side had to be examined for its best
quality.
8. Flagstone, Top Soil, & Irrigation – After every last
boulder was used and I was happy with the design,
topsoil was brought in. I was not going to settle
with just topsoil. I mixed in a 1/3 compost and
where I knew certain plants would enjoy some
extra drainage, sand and small pea gravel was
incorporated. Irrigation was dug and designed
accordingly for each area. Flagstone, also salvaged
from the amphitheater, was then laid down. This
process took several days because of the size of
the new patio and path.
9. Planting – FINALLY! Plants that had been waiting
for months in their pots could now go in the
ground. All told there are close to 1,000
perennials, with 200 different species including a
variety of shrubs and trees. Laying out the plants
where I wanted them was also accomplished
directly in the garden. This took some time but
when the crew and I finally began planting it took a
full day to put everything into the ground. Pea
gravel was then added around all rock garden
plants and finely shredded wood mulch was used
around shrubs and back of beds.
10. Gate – The last part of the project, the new gate,
arrived on October 9th and was quickly installed.
Stone is expected to be placed around the gate
pillars by the end of the month.
A big thank you goes out to the Town of Vail for
funding this project and in particular to Todd
Oppenheimer who put his heart into this with
Betty Ford Alpine Gardens.
We hope you visit and enter through this new entrance
soon!