"Before" — Over the last several years a winter storm brought down a large Austrian Pine to the left of our entrance and we had to remove a beautiful, but diseased Red Maple that canopied our entrance.


"After" — We made a special effort to include plants that would present us interest through all seasons.

Over the last several years we lost two beautiful trees near our headquarters entrance.  Last winter, to the left of our entrance, a large, mature Austrian Pine fell over in a snow storm and several years before that we had to remove a diseased Red Maple that for many years had provided beautiful shade canopy over our entrance.

We decided to create a new entrance garden that would provide us with year round seasonal interest.  Two “specimen” trees were planted, a Japanese White Pine “Glauca” has a twisted outrageous character to it (just left of our entrance walk).  To the left of that we placed a Gingko “Princeton Sentry.”  The Gingko is somewhat unique because at one time it was thought to be extinct.  Now it’s being introduced, predominantly in urban settings, because it is so resistant to just about anything we throw at it.  It’s particularly resistant to urban pollution and drought.  A number of grasses and large granite boulders were added along with some “Green Mountain” boxwood specifically for winter interest.

Our facilities manager, Don Olson, had a major challenge as soon as the garden was installed.  During the installation our landscaper severed our underground sprinkler lines, and since everything was planted in the midst of the worst spring drought in recent memory, Don had to improvise a special soaker system until we could repair our underground sprinkler system.