11-14-09 Party in the Park!
11-14-09 Party in the Park!
Thankfully, the weather was gorgeous (if not a little brisk), but you warm up quickly when you are planting trees and shrubs, removing invasive plants, and hauling mulch back and forth. We had musicians out for most of the day, including Brian Kent on saxophone, James Lucal on the fiddle, Ben Smith playing the clarinet, and the Boys of Greenwood Glen serenading us at lunchtime with their sweet bluegrass/Celtic tunes. Monica, another Nature Consortium staff member, also led an arts activity for some of the younger kids to partake in when they weren’t wielding little shovels.
We had 146 wonderful participants from University Child Development School (UCDS), as well as 21 amazing volunteers from St. Andrews Presbyterian Church and several local colleges. Throughout the course of the day, 365 potted plants- mostly understory plants like salal and deer fern- and over 50 live stakes were put in the ground. Live staking is the process of harvesting branches from larger plants and sticking them in the ground to grow new plants. This may sound unbelievable, and it only works with certain plant species, but live staking can be a really effective (and cheap!) way to reintroduce native vegetation to an area. We planted salmonberry, thimbleberry, and red-osier dogwood by digging a small hole with rebar and sticking two-thirds of the stake in the ground.
At the end of the day, we also had a bunch of potted plants in the ground thanks to all the youngsters and their families! After a morning introduction from buphalo, UCDS had their own team captains lead planting demonstrations and they did a great job! To end the day, we had the king of all bucket brigades as volunteers moved a gigantic mountain of mulch to help keep invasive plants from taking root again. It looks great out at Soundway everyone, thank you so much! And a special thanks to our board members who came out and got dirty with us, it was great to have your help and your presence!
