The Persistence of Geese: Lagoon Restoration 2020


Lagoons at the old quarry site, March 2020

Something is afoot at the old stone quarry.

Our chain of romantic lagoons, once a place for swimming and fishing and diving and ice skating have, over the decades settled and filled. Some retain a respectable depth of water. Others have become shallow muddy puddles.

Fred and Ethel

Our resident pair of migratory Canada geese, Fred and Ethel, are nonplussed. They are happy with mud or deep water. They are just wondering what all of the fuss and heavy equipment is all about: this is the spot they return to each spring to raise their brood.

These old stone quarries inspired landscape architect Warren Manning to create a naturalistic landscape and gardens for the Seiberling family's great estate. He wanted to draw from and highlight the existing scenery and vistas into the Crooked River's valley. It is from these old stone quarries the Stan Hywet derives its name. He re-imagined them as lagoons with moon bridges and subtle cascades  and pools of various depths in front of a wall of the Cuyahoga Valley's distinctive pebble encrusted sandstone. A place for recreation and relaxation.

Sandstone ledges in the Lagoon, showing textile liner after dredging.

For many of the decades that we have been a public garden, the Lagoons have been a place of serenity and somewhat wild abandon. There have been some restoration efforts over the years, but 2020 is the beginning of a large scale renewal. Each lagoon is being dredged, lined with textile, clay, and pebbles, re-edged in stone and the pump and circulation system redesigned.

Original stone pump house, with daffodils (and soon, trillium!)

The lagoons will again hold an impressive depth of water.

Stone pathways will be re-built, and eventually plantings restored.

Even now there is lingering beauty in some long established shrubs and trees.

Ancient Rhododendrons.

Right now, the dredged and pebble-lined lagoons resemble a peaceful Zen garden.

Zen

Soon enough, they will once again be the lush and romantic retreat that Warren Manning envisioned.

We think Fred and Ethel will be pleased. They are pretty attached to this place, and persistent. They return each year. Almost as persistent as some of the old daffodils. Who came back each spring no matter what is afoot at the old stone quarry.

The persistence of daffodils. New stone edging after textile and a layer of clay.

Step one: lagoons drained, dredged, and sediment hauled away. Family tennis court in the background.

Work began at the southern most lagoon, below the Japanese Garden.


Work progressing northward toward the second Lagoon


Japanese Garden above the Lagoons. View toward the West Terrace, with Forsythia.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

To Keep Us All Connected

Image
These early days of Spring, so much can change in a day. Hellebores in the Birch Tree Allee To keep us all connected, this temporary blog will be a place where we can share pictures and stories from the garden we all love, but that many of us cannot be in for the time being. Horticulture staff will add pictures and updates as we can. And perhaps as time goes on we can add pictures of what people may be working on in their gardens at home. Forsythia and Yoshino Cherry, just starting to bloom on a cloudy spring day Looking forward to the day when we can all be in the garden again, soon! Freshly pruned Mackintosh apple trees in the Great Garden.
Read more

English Garden Update

Image
Tree Peonies in bloom, May 2019 What's going on in the English garden so far this spring? Plants in the English Garden are slowly emerging and just a couple early bloomers such as the Rock Cress and some early yellow primrose are showing color. Today the Peony hoops have been installed to hold up the gorgeous blooms we should be seeing in about a month. The Greenhouse crew was busy growing lots of replacement perennials for the English Garden in the past several months. Some of the plants were started as seed or divisions taken in the fall and others were bought in as bare root. Because our Greenhouse space in so limited and annual production is in full swing, this meant we had to get the perennials out quickly to their new home in the English Garden. To do this so early, we had to slowly transfer perennials grown in a 75 degree greenhouse, to a make shift cold frame, and then lastly outside to get them acclimated to our cold nights. Thousands of plants in one o...
Read more

Snow on the Daffodils

Image
Sunrise over the Manor House, April 10, 2020. Yoshino Cherries in bloom with a pink cloud background, and in the foreground, fittingly, an heirloom variety of apple tree known as "Snow." There is an old adage, "It always snows on the daffodils." Weeping cherry tree and snowy daffodils near the Gardener's Cottage. I am not sure the origin of this wisdom, but snow on the daffodils is something most springs in Ohio you can count on. For one thing, daffodils have a very long blooming season: the earliest arriving sometimes in February, with a continued progression of bloom more or less through April. And most Aprils, we can count on one or more big snows. Manor House viewed through the Rose Garden, April 10, 2020. Including Good Friday, April 10, 2020. We awoke to several inches of light fluffy snow. And at sunrise, pink clouds over the Manor House cleared way for briefly blue skies. Rising sun illuminates the Birch Allee, April 10, 2020...
Read more