Day Lily Garden

Photograph copyright Steve Karg, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Orange_Daylily.jpg

There is a day lily garden to the west of Kirby House, beyond the fire circle, on the crest of the hill that parallels the road. 

I went there last September (2009) to sit and look at the mill and to wonder if the camp would ever open again.  The garden was in danger of being overcome by briars back then.  God only knows what it's like now.  But if anyone ever has the chance to go looking for it, you'll know you are there when you spot the base of a concrete birdbath.

(Click on any of the following pictures to see a full-size version.)

Kirby House, from the southwest.

These pictures were found loose in a folder in the GSNEO History Committee archives.  There are no dates or notations on the backs of any of them.  They were identified and retrieved by Council historian Sunny Baddour.  It may be that they were part of the information the Cleveland Council obtained in 1936, when considering purchase of the Kirby estate. 

The first view positively identifies the location as being adjacent to Kirby House (compare the chimney in this photo with the more recent photo under "Stonework".)  Note the line of boulders emerging from the hillside on the left.  This was probably a stream, possibly from the stonework springhouse farther up the hill.  There is a split-rail fence on the hill behind the house.  Along the edgesof the pond are fan-shaped clumps of blade-like leaves (possibly iris?).  There are two flower stalks emerging from the leaves in the pond itself.  These look to be pickerelweed, a common plant in shallow water with light blue/violet blossoms.  These bloom in mid-late summer.

Note the triangular rock at the left foreground edge of the pond.  The same rock is further to the center in the second view, which shows that the position of the photographer has changed just slightly, angled slightly more "up hill".

In the third view, the garden pond can only be indentified as an indentation surrounded by blade-like leaves.  There appears to be a mowed path between the pond and the sunny border garden in the foreground.  One source from the 1940s mentions that the Kirbys had hired a botanist to find unusual plants for their garden.  Could this be where their specimens were planted?

This photo was taken years later than the others.  The identity of the woman on the right is (as yet) unknown. 

Kirby House has acquired a small addition in back and an awning over the dining room windows.  The shrubs at the base of the chimney have gotten larger, lily pads cover the surface of the pond, and reeds (cattails?) are growing up in the water.