Well it is about time I wrote another blog for Mt. Lebanon Magazine. But I didn’t want to overdo the number of blogs I do in one year–this is No. 2. I just needed something to talk about and also know how to include a photo.
I actually have lot to talk about but I do it with myself most of the time. Sometimes I blab on interminably and I have to yell at myself–QUIET! Some of the subjects I’ll expound on in the future could include The Library Courtyard and surrounding gardens, The Mt. Lebanon Nature Conservancy, the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, designing garden plots in and for Mt. Lebanon and sometimes just the growing of plants.
Yep, you guessed it: I am obsessed with plants. Can’t help it! It is in my blood from as far back as growing up in Baltimore with a Dad that did it all himself. And that seems to be me too. My Dad walked miles with a wheelbarrow to collect stones from a local quarry for his rock garden, stone steps and the side porch he build with his own hands. What a work of love that was. But he constructed his garden and green environment after work on weekdays and weekends and smiled while getting down and dirty. Mom helped to weed so they could be together in the great outdoors.
So now I’ll show you the new rock garden the Eagle Scouts put in for us at the Mt. Lebanon Library. I say “us” meaning the gardeners who weed and get their hands in the soil every Monday, me included. For 13 years we have climbed and weeded the steep slope in the Library Courtyard while sliding in the loose soil or mud if it rained the day before, almost killing ourselves. We dreamed of a way to remain upright while doing our pruning, planting and weeding. How about a rock garden, we said!
Eagle Scout Troop #28 from the Bower Hill Community Church in Mt. Lebanon agreed to install a rock garden on the hillside and on Sunday October 15, they did just that. Under the expert direction of Scout Maxwell Ernest working on this as an Eagle Scout Project, he and about 13 scouts about 14 years of age and three Dads made the hillside a walkable and an esthetically pleasing rock garden. 
Max’s Mom served a lunch of peanut butter, jelly or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches made to order. Olivea, Max’s sister helped in plating the sandwiches with a bag of chips, fruit and a drink for each scout. The lunch kept up their energy, and you know boys like to eat.
They arrived at 9 a.m. with 27 large rocks (very heavy) and a load of sand. The boys hauled the rocks and sand over the fence and placed them on the hillside. Eileen Lovell, the Library Garden project manager (and I!) directed the scouts in the rock placement. And then the scouts, under Maxwell’s direction, created this lovely working rock garden. Wow! It is wonderful! We love it!
Now I would also like to give credit to John Gibbons ,who owns a landscape business and does work in Mt. Lebanon, who gave expert advice on how to do a rock garden and provided the scouts with free rocks and sand. The project could not have been a success without John. Thank you everyone.