Highland Park

By Jared A. Buck, Buck & Sons Landscape Services, Inc.

Buck & Sons Landscape Service, Inc.'s Highland Park project in Westerville, Ohio features a unique 8-arce aquatic park with a naturalistic rockscape, a lazy river, bio-swale rain garden and an 850 square-foot green roof. Photos courtesy of Jared A. Buck, Buck & Sons Landscape Services, Inc.

Buck & Sons Landscape Service, Inc.'s Highland Park project in Westerville, Ohio updated an existing pool with a unique 8-arce aquatic park to include a natural feel with slides, a lazy river, and a competition pool. Taking one year to finalize, the landscape was completed using only eight workers.

The plants shown are blue pacific junipers. The area measures 60 by 15 feet. Rain Bird 4-inch pop-up sprinklers are used for irrigation.

Shown here is the children's slide area. The contractor brought in sandstone boulders and put them in place with a loader and then hand dug and set the boulders manually. Also, sandstone steppers were used for steps, brought in by loader and handset in place. Buck had to maneuver around concrete workers, setting the steps at the right height for concrete to be poured up to them. It took workers two days to install all the steps, boulders and plants. The plants shown include: Elijah blue fescue, switch grass, grow low sumac, and dwarf fountain grasses.

Like many projects of this magnitude, the Highland Park involved many trades working together in close proximity and timing. In addition to the landscape contractor's work, plumbers, electricians, veneer specialists, a pool contractor, an architectural expert and roofing specialists worked the site in unison.

The boulders in this area are faux rock, and were transported in with a loader.

Landscaping

To balance out the large areas of hardscape, Buck & Sons integrated in a wide variety of plant material. They planted an assortment of trees, including Black Gum, Tuliptree, Elm, Oak, Maple, Zelkova, and Bald Cypress.

To complement the trees, they also planted many shrubs and perennials, including Hydrangea, Sweetspire, Chokeberry, Fothergilla, various ornamental grass (dwarf fountain, feather reed, blue fescue), Junipers, Potentilla, Bayberry, Sedum, Liriope, Grow low sumac, Viburnum, Red twig dogwood, coreopsis, Sedges, Forbes, Wildflowers, sod and seed.

The contractor planted 50 pounds (about 2 acres) of Wildflower Seed mixes, laid 15 Tons of Rip Rap and 1,800 square yards of Bluegrass sod.

After the rock delivery, workers used large excavators to drop the rocks onto the ''lazy river'' island; the landscapers rolled the rocks to their specified location (per the design plan) and hand dug the earth to set them in place. Additionally, an excavator added the 6-9-inch stones to the middle of the island. A concrete pump truck was employed to add mortar around the band of the lazy river, and workers hand placed all the stone in the mortar as it was pumped in. Once the rock border was set, the landscapers planted and mulched the island. It took the company one day to complete this area, using eight workers to set all the rocks. It took them one additional day to transport and plant all the material, and an additional one-half day to mulch and detail.

The plants here include: 30 coreopsis moonbeam, 44 dwarf fountain grass, cassian 50 elijah blue fescue grass, 12 grow-low sumac and 16 potentilla. The contractor added soil to the island after excavation, as well as comtil and fertilizer. It took workers one day to plant, add amendments and mulch.

Green Roof

The park's main building received a green roof makeover. Buck and Sons installed 850 square feet of Live Roof modules along with 350 cubic yards of Bio-swale/Rain Garden soil mixture. The mixture was made up of 1/3 sand, 1/3 soil and 1/3 compost.

The park's main building received a green roof makeover. Buck and Sons installed 850 square feet of Live Roof modules along with 350 cubic yards of bio-swale/rain garden soil mixture. The mixture was made up of 1/3 sand, 1/3 soil and 1/3 compost.

The contractor laid more than 1,800 square yards of Bluegrass sod. Workers prepped the soil using a rock hound and hand raking for removing rock and debris. The islands are irrigated with pop-up sprinklers.

Rain Garden

For the rain garden areas which reside at the park's entrance, the contractor planted more than 5,000 plant plugs and 20 different species, including sedges, forbes and wildflowers.

The island measures 90 feet long by 14 feet wide. Buck used an excavator to add boulders; the stones were then hand placed using shovels. After placing the stones, the eight workers involved used a pump truck to bring in the mortar.

Hardscape

The hardscaping was a massive undertaking, utilizing more than five tons of sandstone flagstone and 30 tons of sandstone boulders. The contractor installed six sandstone steppers and flagstone, re-used pavers, pervious concrete, recycled asphalt and concrete.

In addition, Buck utilized 3,000 square feet of re-used pavers and 3,000 square feet of concrete and permeable pavers and 10 tons of 6-9-inch river rock.

All in all, the park blends environmentally friendly plant material, natural rock-scapes with good old fashion pool fun.