Parks, Recreation & Leisure

Parks, Recreation & Leisure / Parks & Forestry

Landscaping Tips

2005 A Busy Year For Beautification Program
July 2005
2005 is proving a busy and successful year for our young City Beautification Program, first implemented in 2003. Several large new gardens were installed at various locations this spring, and can now be enjoyed by the public. More new gardens are anticipated by fall.

Thousands of residents have taken advantage of the new Reed Road Water Park. The facility offers water thrills for all ages, with a state-of-the-art facility surrounded by extensive new landscaping overflowing with colorful annuals, perennials, and shrubs. Visitors feel as though they have entered a tropical paradise, surrounded by landscape accents of bananas, cannas, elephant ears and hibiscus. The on-time opening of the pool and it’s success result from months of intense planning and implementation by the Parks & Recreation Department, Burgess and Niple, MSI Designs, and Turner Construction. The gardens were created through a collaboration of MSI Designs, Greenscapes Landscape Company and our Parks & Forestry Division.

Visitors and City employees can now enjoy two new entry gardens at our Municipal Services Center. The garden at the main entrance on Tremont Road lies in front of the limestone wall and a new bronze plaque that identifies the facility. A trademark boulder and bronze plaque is the focal point of our rear entry garden on Kenny Road. A delightful shade garden surrounds the boulder and provides a colorful backdrop for the nearby bus stop. Both gardens provide four seasons of interest, provided by unique, colorful and resilient perennial species.

The City Beautification Program received a mini-grant from Keep Franklin County Beautiful for the renovation of two gardens at Wyandot Park. This quiet park, at the intersection of Lane Road and Riverside Drive, has a unique Native American History. It is home to the Scioto Trail Bicentennial Marker and a memorial for Bill Moose, a Wyandot Indian. The front entry garden and the memorial garden were both renovated using Ohio native plant species. Students from Jones Middle School participated in the planting project and learned the many benefits that native plants provide.

Thanks to a grant from the UA Roundtable, the first phase of the garden renovation at Five Points is complete. Phase one of this much-anticipated project includes the complete renovation and expansion of the plantings within two existing triangles. The new plantings feature hundreds of low growing colorful perennials and shrubs to highlight the bustling intersection. Sponsorship is still available for phase two, which plans to incorporate additional landscaping into the remaining street corners.

Upper Arlington is beginning to see the progress the beautification program is making, as new gardens pop up around the City. These new bright spots are making our community a greener, more colorful place to live, work and visit.

On behalf of the Parks & Forestry Division, I would like to thank City Council, the UA Garden Council and members clubs, project sponsors, other City staff members and the community as a whole for supporting this worthwhile endeavor. Please feel free to contact me at 614-583-5347 if you have questions about the program or you wish to become a sponsor of existing or new landscapes in UA.

Parks & Forestry Division
Parks & Recreation Department
City of Upper Arlington
3600 Tremont Road
Upper Arlington, OH 43221
Phone: 614-583-5340
www.ua-ohio.net