401 N Parker Dr, Janesville
JANESVILLE — Corporate landscaping all tends to look the same.
Tidy arbor vitae, an endless expanse of lawn and allegedly decorative rock usually figure into the mix.
Not at the new Janesville Gazette Printing & Distribution plant. Instead of evenly spaced shrubbery, the front of the building features communities of perennials plants and grasses, designed by Roy Diblik of Northwind Perennial Plant Farm.
And instead of an endless expanse of lawn, the area behind the building will feature a 5-acre prairie.
“We got a standard landscaping design, but it was too generic, too boring,” said Chuck Flynn vice president and technical director of Bliss Communications and project manager for the new plant.
So Flynn and Bliss Communications Chairman and CEO Skip Bliss launched an ambitious landscaping plan that would involve two landscaping companies, a top local designer and business owner and a cutting-edge prairie restoration firm.
Here’s the best part: Not only will the non-traditional design look better, it will also reduce the amount of maintenance.
“The major reason we went with this design was that it fit the prairie-style building design,” Flynn said. “It was a bonus that the labor will be significantly less. For less labor, we’re going to have more flowers and more prairie grasses than the standard groomed-lawn approach.”
Up front: Plants work in harmony
Bliss recommended Diblik, the co-owner of Northwind Perennial Farms, and a designer.
“I’m on the community development authority in Fontana, and he’s done a number of projects for us,” Bliss said. “He does things that produce color on a four-season basis.”
Bliss liked the natural elegance of Diblik’s designs.
Diblik’s policy is “know maintenance.”
“Each plant represents labor,” Diblik said. “So the way we chose and combine plants is important.”
The design for the printing plant is a “stylized naturalized” setting that includes 1,500 native and non-native grasses and perennials. Next year an additional 1,500 to 2,000 plants will be added.
The plants Diblik picked grow well in average soil and can handle hot and dry spells. He estimates staff will have to water “twice deeply” in July.
Perhaps more importantly, Diblik created plant “communities.” The texture, structure and growth rate of each plant in a community was considered, so the group would continue to be attractive throughout the year.
“All through the summer you’re going to see different kinds of brush strokes,” Diblik said. “Things will constantly change all the way through the fall.”
Nature’s Touch did the planting while Highway Landscaping did the grading, planted the trees and shrubs and seeded the grass.
Out back: Prairie plants return home
Behind the plant, Bliss Communications purchased land for future expansion.
Formerly a farm field, the 5-acre patch was well on its way to becoming a collection of non-native, invasive weeds.
Flynn called in Tall Grass Restorations of Milton Township, a business whose specialty is restoring Midwestern prairies to their natural states.
To get the process started, Tall Grass project manager Jordan Rowe sprayed the field with herbicide, and let it die back for a couple of weeks. Then he seeded the field with a short grass-prairie mix of seeds at a rate of 60 seeds per square foot. All of the seeds are from plants native to this area, and that means they won’t need special treatment to survive.
“We’re putting back what was originally here,” Rowe said. “These plants are drought tolerant. Some of their roots go down 14 feet so they can pull moisture from greater depths. They’re all excellent for erosion control, too.”
Wildflowers, sedges, grasses and legumes are all part of the mix. Included are several varieties of asters, coreopsis, sunflowers, blazing stars, coneflowers, trefoils, ryes and clovers.
Not all of the plants will come up right away.
“Some of plants can take up to eight years,” Rowe said. “This summer we saw a few of the aggressive ones come up.”
To keep the non-native weeds at bay, Rowe and his crew will occasionally mow the prairie to a height of 8-to-10 inches. This keeps the unwanted plants from going to seed, but protects the prairie plants.
In April of 2010, Tall Grass will do its first prairie burn.
“It’s part of the natural cycle of the plants,” Rowe explained. “They need the scorching of the heat to germinate.”
Tall Grass is also doing prairie plantings in and around detention basins.
The bottom of the basins will be seeded with prairie plants that can tolerate standing water. Another mix will be used in the middle of the basins’ slopes and yet another around the edges.
Most of Tall Grass work is done at private residences, Rowe said.
“A few businesses are starting to catch on,” Rowe said. “All of your costs are up front, but over the long run, it’s going to save you money.”
What kind of might you see in the five-acre field behind the new Janesville Gazette Printing & Distribution plant?
Wildflowers: Nodding Pink Onion, Butterfly Weed, Sky Blue Aster, Heath Aster, Smooth Blue Aster, New England Aster, Sand Coreopsis, Prairie Coreopsis, Pale Purple Coneflower, Rattlesnake Master, Western Sunflower, Early Sunflower, Prairie Alum Root, False Boneset, Rough Blazing Star, Prairie Blazing Star, Pale Spiked Lobelia, Wild Bergamot, Wild Quinine, Smooth Penstemon, Obedient Plant, Prairie Cinquefoil, Mountain Mint, Yellow Coneflower, Black-Eyed Susan, Compass Plant, Prairie Dock, Grass-leaved Goldenrod, Stiff Goldenrod, Spiderwort, Hoary Vervain and Culver’s Root
Legumes: Leadplant, Canada Milk Vetch, Wild White Indigo, Canada Tick Trefoil, Illinois Tick Trefoil, Round-headed Bush Clover, White Prairie Clover, Purple Prairie Clover.
Sedges: Bicknell’s Sedge, Long-awned Bracted Sedge, Path Rush.
Grasses: Little Bluestem, Side Oats Grama, Prairie Brome, Canada Wild Rye, Virginia Wild Rye, June Grass, Prairie Dropseed.
