Thursday, January 12, 2040

As example of enhanced gardens at the Plaza is this scene from the early 1980's. I added hundreds of gladiolas, birdbaths, and shrubs. I never asked Weston to pay for any of this and was happy to donate my time and funds to 'our' home as manager. Taken from the third floor breezeway. Autos are Leah Siroy (red Buick), her sister Florence Kimmel's (burgundy Buick), and Howard Lang's (Ford).

When I started my management I tried to fill in empty areas with color, I desired cohesive upkeep of the entire property. I noticed a bare garden strip below Velma Seat (37) next to the parking area by the other stairway tower. I soon prepped it for flowers, Velma spied me, telling me she had always planted flowers there, spring and fall. I appreciated that, but we agreed that she needed to be a little more timely with her maintenance, so it was never bare dirt. The arrangement continued to work, however, it was always a little uneasy for me, as in that building if one tenant had a planting area, all the others wanted one too. The gardens needed to be maintained in a professional manner at all times befitting a residential building. We had full time landscape-gardeners, and they did a great job, but they kept the grounds in a more simplistic theme. I talked to them many times and they did not mind me adding things as long as they were easy maintenance, this was completely understandable. As an example, Emily and Elizabeth kept some of the geraniums in the main lobby.