Planting a Berm in Colorado
Gardening in a New Place
One of the greatest things about Facebook is keeping in touch with friends you worked with and seeing what they’re doing - especially their retirement projects.
When I posted about this blog on Facebook my friend Debbie Boam, who I first met in the early 1980s when I interviewed her for a Foremost News article, told me about her retirement present to herself… a beautification project at her Colorado home.
Debbie and Ian Sacks purchased the Colorado home about four years ago and then learned they were faced with a “must do” project. They had a 100 x 40 foot berm that separated their home from the street and it was full of a thistle that is on Colorado’s Noxious Weed List (there are five types of thistle on this list). By law they needed to remove it so Debbie began planning a berm replant that would eliminate the eyesore the area had become in between the between the beautiful patio she and Ian had installed and the street.
It was a huge project, requiring much research and hiring talented landscapers with good labor. The project was intense – it took four men working 10 hour days to dig and pull out the thistle. Then Debbie and Ian brought in really good soil that suits the high desert conditions in which they live, added irrigation and netting to keep the desirable plant seeds and replanted the berm with deer resistant native flowers.
“The whole process is demanding,” Debbie says, “but after living in Texas for 25 years where beautification was emphasized – including aerial seeding of the highways – I wanted to bring that beautification to our Colorado home. I’ve always loved nature, plants and the outdoors, but my garden in Austin was much smaller and a more traditional with a mix of herbs and perennials.”
While the project was took a lot of time, energy and resources the results are worth it “I can hardly wait to see what spring and summer will reveal with our new crop of wildflowers,” Debbie says.
Gardening in a new climate and on different soils means learning about what grows well where. However there’s one garden addition that works well both in Texas and Colorado — the Bottle Tree.
Debbie sent me a photo of their berm in winter and will be sending more pictures for publication in the summer. Meanwhile, enjoy these pictures from her Texas garden.
Creative and targeted programs that make an impact are the hallmark of experienced marketing professional Ruth Steele Walker. Focusing on results that improve the bottom line, she accelerates projects from conception to implementation with a mastery of writing, production, placement, budgeting and coordination.
During more than 25 years with Foremost Corporation of America, the nation's leading insurer of manufactured housing and recreational vehicles, Walker consistently produced effective communications programs that resulted in increased net written premium. Her expertise in crisis communications was a vital part of Foremost's exemplary customer service in the wake of hurricanes, floods and earthquakes. Walker specializes in communications targeting the 50+ demographic, with an emphasis in communications for the 65+ segment.
Among other achievements, Walker developed communications for the merger of Foremost and Farmers Insurance, addressing audiences including customers, employees, trade and consumer media. For Foremost's 50th anniversary, she created a celebration program of internal and external promotions, special events, recognition and a 162-page commemorative book.
Earlier in her career, Walker was a newspaper reporter, a TV and radio producer, and worked in national sales and traffic at network TV affiliates. Walker earned a BA in journalism from Michigan State University and an MS in communications from Grand Valley State University.
She and her husband Scott operate a small vineyard in Michigan's Leelanau Peninsula, producing premium vinifera wine grapes. The vineyard has been the largest local supplier for Suttons Bay wine label L. Mawby, recently named one of the world's top producers of sparkling wines.
