Landscape Committee

By Mary Sapp, Chair 

The big landscape enhancement project for the year was the October installation by Complete Landscaping of a pollinator  garden across the RA path from the Lakeport dock. The garden includes native plants (see photos at the end of this article), which attract butterflies, bees, and birds and should be easier to maintain once they are established. These plants were selected so that the area will provide continuous flowers from April through October, and a half dozen of the plants also either have attractive red, orange or yellow leaves in the fall or are evergreen over the winter. 

Then, the day before Thanksgiving, Complete installed a path with stone steppers to the right of the pollinator garden and replaced the strip of grass below the roses with mulch to provide a more finished and unified look by the dock. 

Complete also removed forsythia next to the turn-around on Lakespray and replaced it with nine wax myrtles and six rhododendrons. Both are evergreen, the rhododendrons have pink flowers, and the berries on wax myrtles are used to scent bayberry candles. Nine of the forsythia were transplanted by volunteers next to the fence to the west of the Lakeport entrance where they will receive more sun than in their original location. 

In addition, Complete just planted 11 iteas beside the RA path to the pool. 

Furthermore, Complete removed invasive nandina plants at the entrance in preparation for new landscaping that will be installed there next spring. 

Meadows Farms planted a 12-foot American hornbeam, per RA’s requirement to plant a replacement for a live black locust that was removed earlier in the year. 

In addition, Meadows Farms sent an inspector to look at plants that died or are struggling as a result of our recent drought. Next spring, they will replace a sweet bay magnolia tree, a holly tree, and four shrubs at no cost (because they were bought less than a year ago), and they will also give us credit for eight other shrubs (bought more than a year ago) if we pay the labor as well as credit for a tree that we will not replace but use to help pay for the labor on other replacement plants. 

During the 2024 Fall Workday, part of I Love Lakeport Day, 18 volunteers transferred river rocks from the west side of the entrance, where they had harmed the health of plants there, to supplement areas near the dock (see photos below). They also removed weeds in the rain garden and next to the RA path down the hill from the Sunrise Valley sidewalk and branches hanging over Lakespray Way, paths, and owner property. In addition, liriope donated by Gil Blankespoor was planted, and soil and mulch he donated were spread at the entrance to replace the rocks removed there. The Little Free Library and the dock were also cleaned.   

Volunteers also removed rocks on the east side of the entrance and put down soil and mulch there.

In addition, volunteers have been watering plants installed this fall and earlier in the year.

See the article on Volunteers for the names of our volunteers, whose contributions reduce the cost of landscape services.

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Please remember that owners and residents are not allowed to remove or add plants in common areas without the permission of Lakeport’s Landscape Committee, and we ask that they consult with us before paying to have branches overhanging their property removed.  

19 Shrubs, 6 grasses, and 52 perennials for the Pollinator Garden: