This news flash just in: The end of the Quince Orchard wall remediation project is finally in sight!
The structural work will be complete within a few weeks and the last step will be to landscape the area between the walls. How close is that step? Well, Community Landscape Services (CLS), the Kentlands Citizens Assembly’s landscaping contractor, presented a conceptual design for the work to the Environmental Management Committee at its regular meeting on August 9th.
The concept uses two different sets of plantings in repeating sections. The plantings emphasize perennial species that will provide color throughout the year with little maintenance. Both designs feature trees that send their roots deep into the earth rather than spread out so that the root balls will not affect the repaired wall sections: Armstrong Maples (on each side of both pictures) and Nellie Stevens Holly (centered).
The first design, the top picture, is proposed to appear a total of four times, twice at each end of the wall complex. The second design, which is proposed to repeat a total of five times between the two ends of the wall, uses emerald green arborvitae (the tall plantings in the background) and Goshiki False Holly (white in front of the arborvitae) to screen the wall and soften its appearance.
The combined concept thus includes a total of 104 trees (maple, holly, arborvitae, and false holly) to replace the 100 trees the Citizens Assembly was forced to remove to allow the wall remediation work to take place as well as a variety of shrubs and flowers.
The Environmental Management Committee endorsed the concept, asked Beth Brittingham to present it to the City of Gaithersburg for approval of the tree replacement strategy, and asked CLS to prepare a formal proposal to be presented to the Board of Trustees for its approval. If all goes well, this work, the final closeout of the wall’s remediation, could begin when the weather becomes suitable for planting in September.