The Journey back to Beautiful in Southern Vermont
Posted on Tue, Jun 05, 2012
From gorgeous to disaster in just a few hours...
then back again by Spring.
The grounds and gardens by Smith Brook at The Four Columns Inn in Southern Vermont have always been a crown jewel, but in the wake of Irene in August, 2011, 20 feet of the grounds had disappeared, the gardens were destroyed, and about five feet of rubble and muck covered the site where weddings were held and people could peacefully while away hours. The mess here is what was left of the site in front of the garden overlooking the stream
Let's get to work!
Within hours the people of Vermont sprang into action. No waiting for FEMA or handouts, the highways were abuzz with activity and the sounds of a State on the mend.Students from The Putney School dropped by to lend a hand shoveling muck off of the gardens...
The Town sent in heavy equipment to begin repair on the stream and banks...
Then we began work to escavate debris and rubble, rebuild the grounds
and re-establish the contours of what had been a beautiful area.
This had to be completed before snowfall and the window was closing...
While we didn't have much snow this past winter, it did give us an early start
to complete the final phases of landscaping before a mid-May wedding.
Local contractor Tom Bloom and his team jumped in early to finish the job,
here unloading one of the many truckloads of sod, which would
be used to cover the final landscaping...
The sod was placed like carpet over the entire area,
a painstaking process and huge amount of work...
Gardener Mia Sheffey planned and planted the new site for the garden,
which Tom and his team had re-crafted from the ruins of the original site...
After much watering and care over the next few weeks, we were able to marvel
at the final product of so much hard work by so many people...
and then to host a very happy occasion...
