Hello Beachwood property owners! I am William Quam, co-chair with my wife, Cheryl, of the newly formed Beachwood Villa Association Landscape Committee. We’ve had a big spring, and we have plans for future projects. Allow me to get everyone up to speed.
Recently Cheryl, Cheryl Holt and I, endeavored to design and re-plant the entrance beds leading into the Beachwood parking areas. It was a time-consuming project with many hours spent removing a couple hundred pounds of thick roots and amending the soil in the beds with approximately 1,300 lbs. of nutritious bed soil and cow manure compost. As for the plant choices, we were very fortunate to locate many Gingers, Agapanthus and Caladiums planted elsewhere on the campus where these plants were not doing well. We were able to transplant almost 50 plants and they are now thriving. My wife, Cheryl, received a generous contribution of plants from a fellow master gardener, which really helped our effort. By locating these free plants and buying the others at or a little below retail cost, we were able to complete the project for $658, a savings of $3,900 over the cost of planting Pansies in these beds last November. In addition, our plant choices are much more drought and fungus resistant. After our recent two-month drought, the beds look healthy.
We have also been focusing on working with Coastal Greenery contractors to reduce our irrigation system maintenance costs. Our goals are two-fold. Recently, BVA received an inspection report from Coastal listing 27 sprinklers in need of repair at a cost of over $2,500. Before undertaking those repairs, Cheryl Holt and I spent almost three hours re-testing the irrigation system with CG manager, Don Locklin. The re-test revealed only 11 sprinklers in need of repair, a savings of almost $1,300. In addition, my wife Cheryl and I recently walked the southern 1/3 of the property with Mr. Locklin looking for sprinklers that can and should be capped. We located 18 sprinklers that were watering dirt, pavement, buildings and/ or established plants that are extremely drought tolerant and do not need irrigation other than Mother Nature. The sprinklers were marked for capping and will result in future irrigation maintenance cost savings. Our Landscape Committee plans to continue oversight of the irrigation system.
Finally, after taking a break during the hot summer months, the Landscape Committee has future projects planned for Beachwood. We have located a couple new outbreaks of non-native invasive species to be eradicated. Also, our committee will design and plant a couple of common areas that currently have the wrong plants in the wrong places. One of these areas is next to the stairs in front of units 2001-2004. We also plan to transplant many more plants placed in poor soil and improper sunlight/shade areas, to better amended soil and better locations so that these plants can thrive. We have roughly 200 Agapanthus plants that have never bloomed on our campus. We hope to have a “Great Free Agapanthus Giveaway” for any property owner who will put these plants in a proper place with proper care. Remember, we are always looking for new volunteers.
Yours sincerely,
William Quam
