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[Stephanie Colombo <st.colombo AT gmail.com>]

It might be worth checking out other varieties of impatiens. Jewelweed is a common native plant of the upstate ny region and its essential oil is amazing as a remedy for poison ivy. The Himalayan Balsam , though not native, is beautiful and is one of the remedies of Bach's flower remedies for those of a high strung nature.

That's just my quick, untested muse.

On Tue, Aug 10, 2010 at 3:47 PM, Simon St.Laurent <simonstl AT simonstl.com> wrote:

I'm wondering if there are visible and perhaps useful things we can do with the edges of property most exposed to the public.  This list is usually a little more meta than that, but I wonder...

In a hot year when we planned to do very little gardening (we had a newborn and have a two-year-old), I've found myself doing lots of work between 6:00 and 8:00am.  Even more to my surprise, I've been doing a lot of that work near the road in front of my house, Route 366.

I have a short hill (10'?) sloping down to a ditch before the road.  The state DOT mows from the road into the ditch once or twice a year, and that area also gets lots of salt and salt spray in winter.  Occasionally the state scrapes out the ditch, though they've skipped my stretch for a while.  There's also the unfortunate regular appearance of pollutants, from oil and gasoline to antifreeze and litter - even occasionally concrete if a truck has to stop there for some reason.

Josh Dolan and I refrained from planting food crops on the hillside, though some elderberries have appeared and I'm content to leave them there.  I'm mostly doing decorative shade garden work (and poison ivy removal) on the hill, though the Edible Forest Garden has been a helpful guide even for that.

My hard question is the side of the ditch that goes to the road.  Cars don't get much of an impression, apart from the whiskey barrel of impatiens the Varna Community Association put there, but pedestrians certainly see it, and I'd like to create some kind of reward for their patience in walking that stretch.

Are there plants more appealing and perhaps productive than goldenrods, ragweed, teasel, and garlic mustard that currently survive in that environment?  Are there examples of work people have already done that I could consider for inspiration?

I'm not looking for serious design here, just a rough idea of whether this is possible enough to be worth investing some time.  I'm happy to experiment, and share the results.

Thanks,
--
Simon St.Laurent
http://simonstl.com/
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-- 
Sincerely,

Stephanie Colombo
321-331-3719

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