Jeni Munn with Rosewood Garden Designs provided an exceptional landscape and design experience for our elementary school. Our outdoor classroom ‘sensory garden’ was in desperate need of a renovation. This large scale space was unkempt and unused due to the poor drainage and overall uninviting layout and aesthetics in and around the garden area.
Part of the poor drainage was due to the pea gravel that was used as a ground cover for most of the area. This was problematic after heavy rains because the gravel would wash-out all over our sidewalk and bus parking lot. Another issue was that there was no true path leading to each sensory plant area.
It had divided garden areas with various sensory plants, (taste, smell, touch, etc.), but it did not have additional hardscape materials, which would enable a natural flow through the entire classroom and lead our students to each sensory garden during guided lessons. By having this design, it would provide a more well-defined “classroom without walls” and a cohesive look to the area as a whole.
Also, the garden area lacked balance and was simply unappealing aesthetically.
Ms. Munn promptly provided her design ideas, all costs involved, and dates of availability and was extremely flexible with anything that the school needed to add or delete from our original meeting. Her quote detailed exactly what we were to expect.
The renovation project included the following:
The drainage problem was corrected by removing the pea gravel, hand raking smooth the entire area, clearing it of all debris for positive water flow and planting. Double-hammered hardwood mulch was added, then approximately 90 natural flagstone stepping stones were added through the entire space, which also helped with our overall directional and visual leads to the individual sensory gardens. Before adding the mulch and the stones, she made sure to amend the soil to a depth of 6-8 inches. In between the stones, she added various low-growing, creeping plants called, ‘Stepables’ (Creeping Jenny, Mazus, and Thyme). ‘Stepables’ is the name brand of plants that were used, but these plants can be bought under other brands, too.
Other plants that were added to the design would provide the area with depth and a more complete look to help define entire perimeter of the outdoor classroom. In this garden, we have a combination of full shade and full sun areas. But throughout the entire garden, there was nothing but hard, rocky clay. After amending the soil in the entire area, she added hardy evergreens that were best suited for the appropriate sunlight and that would give this area year-round color. In addition to adding more sensory plants, such as Gardenias- ‘Frost Proof’ and ‘Klein’s Hardy’, and a low mounding Butterfly Bush called ‘Blue Chip’; she added other evergreen plants such as, Camellias- ‘Shishigashira’, Iris’, ‘Japanese Plum Yew’, which is tolerant of shade, heat, and drought.
With all of these challenges, including a tight budget, Jeni Munn was able to provide a complete design plan with sustainable solutions for our problem areas, work within our budget while using high-level quality materials and maintaining our school’s vision, which was established on some high standards! We have 5 outdoor classrooms now. Some still need ‘renovations’, like our sensory garden just received, and others will need new design plans in general.
We have asked Rosewood Garden Designs (Jeni Munn) to do these projects for our school. I could not imagine another landscape company doing these projects for us. We trust her to provide us with the very best garden and landscape experience. She is a no-hassle, headache-free garden/landscape design company. In my 20+ years of experience in working with and hiring landscapers/designers, Jeni Munn is the only one I can honestly say that I do not have one negative comment about- not one. We look forward to our next project with Rosewood Garden Designs!
