Here we are on May 12th, well into the Spring, and so little has been done! What can be said is that we have a bunch of GREAT new neighbors in the area, hopefully willing to share in the work load that will result in the beautification of 1401 Olive Street. Based on some discussion had by neighbors after the Great Indy Clean-up a couple weeks ago, we saw a few projects that need
immediate attention:
· Mulch Installation & bed cutting
At our last pow wow (during the neighborhood
clean-up), we discussed adding mulch to the existing bed along the west, and
cutting additional soil out to install mulch also behind the fencing (enlarging
the mulch bed essentially). Scott and I will plan to provide enough bulk
mulch for the pocket park front fence line at a minimum.
·
Landscaping
There seem to be plenty of opportunities locally to
cull plants from overgrown yards and gardens and to transplant them over to our
park area. We can use lilies, lambs ear, daisies, black eyed susans,
periwinkle, clematis – basically ANY type of perennial that isn’t invasive and
would complement the idyllic park setting. There is no landscape plan,
alas there is no landscape planner. Karen Dunivan has suggested that she
would transplant a few natives, but she’s the only one who has really indicated
intent to act.
·
Water service installation
I believe there is an opportunity to connect to a
nearby water meter. We’ve had brief discussions with the new owners and
desire to create a win-win whereby the park can access their water line and pay
them for the usage. We’d just need a valve installed with some kind of
metering device and a yard hydrant to which we could connect near the
fence. It would be nice to have someone who could investigate this as a
package deal.
·
Raised Bed Gardens
I’ve kept my eyes out for old pressure treated
framing lumber, but I haven’t come across any recently. I’d rather not
buy lumber for the raised beds, although it wouldn’t take much to create a few
to get started. We could also try to get some donated stock from a local
lumber yard, perhaps warped stuff that would otherwise be scrap. We
really just need someone to cold call local dealers of lumber to see if we can
get enough lumber to build about six short raised beds (for now we could even
just do three). I don’t have a source for soil yet either, although there
is a heap behind my house at 1342 Linden Street as well as a heaping mound of
soil from a sanitary line installation behind a house just north on the 1300
block in the alley. It’s not great soil, but it would be a good start,
and we could potentially top off with compost from the City of Indianapolis
compost pile at the Kentucky Avenue landfill.
·
Fence maintenance (painting / latch repair)
The fencing needs minor maintenance including
additional stain and fixing of the latch mechanism for the back alley fence.
·
Grass maintenance
The grass installation seems to have fizzled out this
year. Scott dumped some grass clippings that we can use as straw.
I’m going to contact the guy who reseeded the lawn to see if he will provide
additional coverage. We may have to wait until the fall to see how it
fills in and how much is left over the summer. The last time we seeded,
the Summer pretty well delayed seed sprouts for three months. The yard area
will most certainly need some general weeding, although we should probably try
to perform regular broad leaf weed control and fertilizer as time and money
permits.
These are just a few of the items we need to think about for
the 1401 Olive Pocket Park. If you have a special interest, please let us know. Don’t let the lack of a formal meeting out there stop anyone from
organizing their own effort to address any of the above-mentioned items. In due time it will pay off.
