General Minutes March 2005

GENERAL MINUTES OF TURNAROUND TEAM MEETING

The TurnAround Team, Inc. General Meeting – 28 March 2005

Deb Swank, Chair, called the meeting to order at 7 PM. In attendance were 19 people plus our speaker.

Deb briefly reported on the status of the Phase III work on the lighting project. Torgerson Electric won the bid for the installation. We need to develop a flyer to alert the homeowners about the up coming work to install the lights. Trees are likely to be planted this fall.
The Aaron Douglas Celebration Mural wall is built! We had about 100 people at the groundbreaking ceremony. 6 or 7 teachers and 25 students are lined up to do painting. “T Money and Wolf” a Kevin Wilmont lay will be performed at Topeka High April 21 – 23.
Ann Palmer, Landscape Architect, spoke to us about Landscaping On An Urban Lot. The basics are: Keep it simple; Keep it native; Try to keep close to original plants; and Keep in mind drought tolerance. Start on your lot by looking critically and pruning or taking stuff out. Even overgrown shrubs can be cut back very severely (back to 12” to 18”) with out killing a lot of them. ALWAYS prune blooming shrubs right after they bloom. Trees are good, but smaller does not always mean easier. Keep things in scale. Try not to hide the house. If you are going to plant flowers, don’t plant them like soldiers, plant in clumps for a mass of color. Daffodils are great… with proper selection of several varieties you can have blooms from March through May. Ann doesn’t really like tulips… they degenerate after a few years.

Street trees are very important in old neighborhoods. Bradford Pears are soft and break up in storms. NEVER plant silver maples or sweet gum because the roots are invasive and they tear up sidewalks. Good trees are: White ash varieties; Red maple, Sugar maple (Legacy); Catalpa (yes, she likes this old tree); Kentucky coffee; Oaks like shingle, sawtooth and willow (avoid pin oaks because of chlorosis problems). For ornamental trees Ann likes: Smoketree; Redbud; Cornelian cherry. Dogwood trees do no do well here.

Shrubs can add interest, but should be kept in scale. Witch hazel is native and blooms very early. Lilacs, especially Korean lilac, are also good. She prefers the old Persian varieties over the French ones. Old-fashioned spirea and forsythia also do well. Button bush does good in wet areas. Red twig and yellow twig dogwood have interest in winter.

Perennials can provide foliage and color interest all year long. For shade, hostas are reliable as are bleeding heart and astilbe. (Face it, shade is really hard to have a good garden in.) For sun, hollyhocks are an old-fashioned biennial, bachelor buttons, bee balm, Virginia bluebells, and, of course, peonies. Sweet William (woodland phlox) is a taller plant and hen & chicks is a durable small plant. Vines can be good news and bad news depending on what you plant. Do not plant trumpet vine and plant wisteria only if you have a VERY sturdy trellis. Clematis is good as is porcelain berry.

On May 6th College Hill will have its plant sale at Boswell Square Park. If you want to donate plants contact College Hill NA. Deb Swank volunteers to share iris and Ann Palmer will share daylilies.
Next, Deb talked about the “Into The Streets” project by LINC at Washburn University. The area is Central Park, Chesney Park, College Hill, Elmhurst, and Tennessee Town. Meeting on April 3rd at noon at World Cup to develop a project list.
The meeting on April 25h will be a recognition meeting. Get nominations to Deb or to Rob Banks ASAP.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:40 PM.

People who are interested in improving the quality and image of Central Topeka, particularly people who live in or own property in the Central Topeka area from Monroe to MacVicar and 21st to the Kansas River, are particularly encouraged to attend. For further information, call 234-2883.