Please contact us if you would like to help with any of these committees!!!
DES Outdoor Experience Initiative With The SCA/Scotty Grows
Plant Palette/Image Board created by Scotty Grows
Blue Star Garden Escape - 100’ x 20’ - An educational and inspirational garden trail
with critter friendly plantings and quiet reading nooks. Located on E end of the building,
accessible from the bus driveway.
○ March/April - prep planting area, remove netting, rake soil, till, mulch - adult
volunteers are welcome.
○ April - define/design garden & whimsy w/ student & teacher input.
○ May - plant garden w/ students, teachers and volunteers.
○ May-Oct - water and maintain new garden plantings - adult volunteers needed.
○ Sept onward - students track growth, observe wildlife, learn to harvest and
create from the garden.
P.J.M. Rhododendron
A durable yet charming rhododendron with small trusses of bright lavender-purple blooms that contrast with the small, dark green leaves. The evergreen foliage takes on a mahogany-brown winter color. This variety is noted for its tolerance for heat as well as cold. An excellent choice for borders, mass plantings, or containers.
Blue Star Juniper
Blue Star Juniper
Attractive sparkling blue foliage on dense, spreading branches. Creates a colorful contrast to purple and green foliage plants. Use in a rock garden or as a low border plant. Ideal for mass plantings in minimal-care landscapes. Evergreen.
Amsonia Ciliata
Osmuda Cinnamomea
Blue Star Juniper
Amsonia ciliata is a clump-forming perennial that is native from North Carolina to Florida west to Missouri, Arkansas and Texas. It is generally found in sandy soils. It typically grows to 2-3’ tall. Terminal clusters of star-like, light blue flowers bloom in mid spring (May) atop generally erect stems clad with narrow, almost needle-like, green leaves. Foliage turns attractive shades of yellow in fall. This plant is commonly called bluestar or fringed bluestar or downy amsonia.
Osmuda Cinnamomea
Osmuda Cinnamomea
Osmuda Cinnamomea
The fronds of cinnamon fern occur in groups, rising from a shallow, black rootstock. Fertile fronds appear first as silvery, furry fiddleheads, ultimately becoming stiff, erect, and covered with specialized pinnae, which turn their upper portions into a thick spike of fruit dots - turning from green to chocolate brown. Sterile fronds bend outwards forming a vase-shaped circle enclosing the "cinnamon" fronds. The fern can reach a height of 6 ft.
Sedum Thunderhead
Osmuda Cinnamomea
Osmuda Cinnamomea
Compact and strongly branched, Sedum 'Thunderhead' produces masses of huge, flower heads packed with star shaped, deep rose blooms. Borne on very stout and upright stems, they rise with majesty above a very handsome, gray-green foliage.
Rudbeckia Laciniata
Rudbeckia Laciniata
Rudbeckia Laciniata
If you are looking for golden blooms in mid or late summer, award-winner Rudbeckia Laciniata will not disappoint you. Very tall, this late flowering Coneflower features large daisy blossoms, 4-5 inches across, with broad, drooping, bright golden petals surrounding a prominent pale green conical center than turns brown as it matures.
Panicum Virgatum
Rudbeckia Laciniata
Rudbeckia Laciniata
Panicum 'Thundercloud' PP20665 is a very large switch grass that grows to a height of 7-8ft when mature. Yet the blue-green foliage remains strictly upright and doesn't flop over in windy, rainy conditions. In late summer, a plethora of pinkish-tan, airy panicles are produced just above the foliage.
Walker Low Catmint
Rudbeckia Laciniata
Sensational periwinkle blue flower spikes adorn the fragrant, compact mound of finely textured, gray-green foliage. Lovely when cascading off walls or container edges. Use to create a showy, waterwise, small-scale groundcover, or as a lovely rock garden accent. An herbaceous perennial.
Courtyard of Curiosity
75’ x 45’ - A tapestry of thought provoking, self-seeding sensory gardens - Colorful Coral Bells, Ancient Amaranth, Perennial Herbs, Quirky Columbine, Plug Plantings, Living Willow Structure. Access from inside the building only.
○ March/April - prep planting area, remove netting, rake soil, till, mulch - adult
volunteers are welcome.
○ April - define/design garden & whimsy w/ student & teacher input.
○ May - plant garden w/ students, teachers and volunteers.
○ May-Oct - water and maintain new garden plantings - adult volunteers needed.
○ Sept onward - students track growth, observe wildlife, learn to harvest and
create from the garden.
Ivy Shepherd
Ivy Shepherd
Vibrant and colourful, heucheras are a popular, autumnal favourite with us gardeners. Nicknamed coral bells, these wonderful, compact plants brighten up any shady border as fillers or ground cover.
Blueprint
Ivy Shepherd
Blueprint showing Phase 1, 2, and 3 of the Outdoor Experience and highlighting the outdoor learning areas.
Letter to the community
The PTO, in conjunction with the Saugatuck Center for the Arts, is so excited to share the plans for
our newly approved educational gardens and outdoor spaces at Douglas Elementary.
At this point, we’ve established our new garden locations and plant selections for both areas of
phase I. They’re tentatively named - The Blue Star Garden Escape & The Curiosity Courtyard. Both
offer their own unique conditions to consider and potential to dream about and encourage. The
goal isn’t just to plant some new gardens, but rather create living-breathing extensions of the
classroom. Where students, faculty and parents can relax in, rally around, root for and reimagine
the whole GROWING experience.
Next steps involve preparing both of these newly designated planting areas come March/April, once
the snow is clear. This requires removing the straw mats, raking up the surface areas, tilling and
mulching. Adult volunteers are welcome and encouraged to assist prepping these beds.
Remember, whether we’re working on our gardens or on ourselves, we have to dig deep to
establish a proper foundation for growth. The work might be heavy and hard, but it’s absolutely
worth the reward. Let’s lead by example!
This spring while we’re prepping these new areas, we’ll also be working with the students (and
teachers!) to define and design the gardens we’ll soon be planting. They’ll work with their
designated plant palette - learning about growth specifications, habits, seasonality, uses and plant
lore - which are foundational to the design process. We’ll also address the basic principles of visual
design AND create collections of our own whimsical garden art to dress up both gardens.
Early May is planting time! This is when and where the students’ vision for the gardens will finally
crystalize and become a reality. We’ll arrange our plants in their designated places throughout the
garden, double check our design, make any necessary changes and plant away! Parent volunteers
are again welcome and encouraged to come help us in the gardens at this time. We would also
appreciate any hand tools parents might be able to temporarily loan on this day as well - shovels,
trowels, stiff rakes, leaf rakes, etc.
Once the gardens are planted, we’ll also need some committed volunteers throughout the
summer to help water and maintain these areas. This will take some coordination w/ the school
faculty, but we’ll be sure to create an easy-to-follow checklist for what needs to be done each visit.
The gardens will also be professionally assessed throughout the summer to help ensure our
plantings become well established.
Please note that all volunteer days are currently TBD, so take some time to review our plant palette/image board to pique your interest. We’ll follow up soon w/ specific dates. We are looking
forward to planting and growing a beautiful legacy with EVERYONE!
Warmly,
The Outdoor Experience Committee
Amaranthus