Events

The AAWO are welcome to start the garden tour at our
place with refreshments and a brief description of the history behind the
gardens at Caroline and Jack Wallace's.

The genesis of the Mulholland Gardens began 250 miles to the north of Ann Arbor in 2003 when Carolyn and I were seduced by the beauty of the native seasonal flowers and plants in the meadows and woods surrounding our condo at Boyne Mountain. Buoyed by success of transplanting local native plants and seeds on the ski slope behind our Boyne condo, plus an opportune sighting of a drift of Allium in a dense thicket on the easement behind our Ann Arbor condo, we decided to develop a Mulholland Garden on both the north and west easements. After receiving permission from the city in the spring of 2009, we hired a tree service company and our condo landscape service to clear the thickets in the north and west side easements, and to help prepare the soil for planting in the fall. I drew a plan for the north garden; plants were ordered from Wild Type in Mason, MI; a seed mix was purchased from Michigan Wild Flower Farm in Portland, MI; a neighborhood planting party was organized, and the north garden was launched in September. To make the start of two gardens more manageable, we decided to delay planting the west side garden for one year, meanwhile covering the surface with three layers of a Sunday NY Times paper J and mulch to suppress the weeds; the west side garden was started in 2010.
There are 70 species of plants in the two gardens with 91% being native. The north garden, which has grown considerably from its modest beginning, is about 2,100 square feet in area, while the smaller west garden is about 600 square feet. We were blessed last year with perfect weather for the Mulholland Gardens, and we are hoping for the same this year. I?ve attached a photo of a gold finch enjoying its breakfast last summer for your viewing pleasure.

Caroline and Jack Wallace
241 Mulholland St (between Liberty and Washington, one block east of 7th
St.. Convene at their unit which is the first as you turn into the drive
and parking area.