The gardener's eye

The Gardener's Eye

Sunday, February 7, 2010

The Ruin Garden at Teixeira Park



Teixeira Park is one of the public parks I work on in West Peterborough, NH. It was donated to the town of Peterborough in 1971 by Pearl Teixeira. Pearl was the widow of Louis Teixeira, a former Peterborough selectman. Louis was born on the island of Madeira and came to Peteborough in 1929. Her intention was that the park " shall be used for the increased beauty of the town of Peterborough".

The park is situated on the Nubanusit River. For many years the park was neglected but in 2006 a renovation process was begun. We decided to keep the park rather wild and to try to attract birds and wildlife. The granite wall was built by Ron Higgins, a resident of West Peterborough. Ron describes himself as a stone mason, carver and sculptor. His website is: http://www.stoneandearthworks.com/. He used granite that the town had on hand from a previous project. Ron let the stone speak to him and created this low wall with an archway. We planted the inner space with plants that would attract humming birds and butterflies. I like to call it the Ruin Garden. As the stone ages and the plants tumble over the walls, It will look more and more like an old New England foundation.

The structure looks particularly strong in the winter months. Children like to play and jump off the walls and we tried to plant the beds in a way that invited the children to play without disturbing the plantings. In future months, I'll show you how the garden progresses throughout the growing season.



2 comments:

  1. Like this. Ah, to have equipment to move stone. Do you have a problem with deer browsing the plantings?

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  2. James.
    Glad you like the Ruin Garden. We had Gordon, the town backhoe expert, assist Ron in building the wall. It was a collaboration of town labor, free materials and wall building at a much reduced rate. The deer have nipped the Sedum 'Autumn Joy'. Will remove the delicacies and divide the survivors.

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