May 18: Community Work Day

Goal:

On our May 10th garlic mustard removal day, we chose this small area as a starting place for our May 18th community work day. We used this spot for identifying and removing invasive species. We chose this area because it is separated by lawn from other impacted areas. We also identified several native and several invasive species, including two invasive shrubs and one native northern spicebush. We removed the garlic mustard.

Our goal on May 18th was to transform this bed into an ornamental showcase for native biodiversity, restoration, and education about the value and threat to the rest of the area. Use this small space as an opportunity to learn about the current ecosystem and appropriate strategies going forward and restoring more of this precious community resource.

We had 14 people join in to help weed, identify plants, remove invasive species, prune, and prepare the site for new plants.

Site for May 18th removal of invasive species and bed preparation for new native and/or pollinator friendly plants.

This is an image of the site after several hours cleaning up the space. The plants that remain are native species we left in the bed.

A few days later, we chose some test plants: Hairy Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum verticillatum), Blue Wonder Catmint (Nepeta racemosa), Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta L.), Coreopsis, East Friesland Sage (Salvia nemorosa), Salvia Bumbleberry, Bee Balm (Monarda didyma 'Grape Gumball'), Baptisia australis, Veronica 'Novaverblu' Dark Blue Moody Blues.

We chose these plants in part for their deer resistance in the hopes they will survive in this location.

Two and a half weeks later, our test plants are thriving!

We also removed invasives and prepped the beds at the edge of the parking lot. We pruned the shrubs, making way for future native plantings.

Fourteen volunteers transformed this area in a morning.