From the north, visitors to the Forest Park on Debaviver Avenue will experience the grand and historic entrance to the park. Today, the intersection of Debalivier and Lindell Bolevard is near the main entrance to the 1904 World Cup. During the exhibition, amusement parks such as “Creatures” competed in the “Old St. Louis” historical festivals and the Battle of the Battle for justice.
The magnificent Jefferson Monument, built in 1913 with a fair amount of revenue, now occupies Vista as the Missouri History Museum. And thanks to the efforts of Justin Schmidt and Horticulture Project Manager, Forest Park Eternal Landscape Designer / Horticulture Project Manager, the overall look is framed by a new, stunning and ever-changing landscape.
“We are inspired by the Hampton and Sinker entrances,” Schmidt said of his plan to reconsider the 14,000-square-foot area between Forest Park Street and Lindell. “Hampton is more colorful with all permanent plants and native plants, but skier is more formal.
Today, the modern form of Lindel-Dibalivier is the construction of the Great River Greenwich St. Vincent Greenway, two miles north of the Lupil Trolley Transport Development District and Lindel Debalivier. However, that work included landscaping improvements in the eastern and western parts of Debaviver, but they did not remove the central island landing site. That wide area between the north and the south made it ripe for improvement.
Schmidt said: “On the central island there was a large crepe myrtle patch, some grass and a few standing plants, but many died, leaving emptiness. “Also, the hard grass that was hard to cut and the Bermuda grass was getting into the plants there. We want to create a more cohesive site from Forest Park Avenue to the Missouri History Museum.
Schmidt designed a multi-layered vegetation system on the northern and southern tip of the island to fulfill his vision. The tips are mixed with more standard plant blocks that are repeated up and down the 475-foot island. The same plants are repeated laterally to connect to the central island.
Schmidt said the concept would melt the “designed plant community” approach and the more traditional “mass planting” mentality.
“With a designed plant community, we build layers of plants according to their function and then we plant other layers with each other,” Schmidt says. “Traditional mass transplants have obvious differences between different types of plants.”
The designed section of the island’s flora community includes a variety of plants that give color and texture. On a recent summer, the Spoky Cobalt Dwarf Lithium stands on the soft Tolway Slinger Sage, and the bright yellow American Gold-Ede Suzanne appeared on the Spring Fire Sodium and the fragrant Esther in October.
And, as Schmidt’s inspiration from Hampton and Skinner introductions, visual and textual needs change with time, not with age.
“Personally, I love the late fall and winter colors,” he says. They are more subtle but they are fun and satisfying for me.
For traditional mass planting sites, Schmidt and his team match species to unify landscapes. The team uses nearly a dozen species, from Cardinal Purple Salvia to Wild Blue Indigo, to provide color and demand throughout the year. The structural planting of the Apatalic Red Redwood, Arnold Promise Witch Hazel and Blue Sioux Indian Grass enhances the appearance of the beds along the way.
In total, the nine-month planting project included 10 trees, 233 shrubs, 2,302 perennials and 3,191 ornamental grasses and trees, a remarkable development for activity near the historic crossroads.
In addition to the Forro Park and Metropolitan stops in Forrest Park, Expo Park, a new apartment-retail development in Forrest Park, is growing northwest corner. A new restaurant and residential building is under construction, just across the street north of Metrolink. And St. Vincent Greenway is also ready for development. The Great River connects Greenway, Missouri-St. University, and plans to extend the route to the North Hanley metro line. Louis Campus with the Lindell-Dibalivier neighborhood.
Emma Klus, vice president of communications and networking at Great Rivers Greenway, said: “They provide plant and animal habitat, oxygen, carbon dioxide and rainwater harvesting. And they are really beautiful! They create a welcoming place for people to enjoy and own.”
For Schmidt, another aspect of the beauty of the crossroads is that the landscape, like the neighborhood itself, is alive and ever changing.
“We are constantly learning on this site,” Schmidt says. “The support of Forever Park Eternal Members allows us to try new things and adjust our plans when needed to achieve the best possible results. I am thrilled to give a new experience every day to those approaching the park from the north.
