Cleaning up the Native Plants

Now that we are into the new year, we have cleaned up the dead material from the two native plant beds: the Road Garden and the Parking Lot Garden. 

Road Garden - before

Parking Lot Garden - before

We had left the dead plants all winter for several reasons:

• snow gets lodged between the stalks and keeps the ground wet when it melts
• native plant seeds are a great food resource for overwintering birds
• bird poop from overwintering birds is a great fertilizer
• it is a habitat for wild animals - indeed we found several nests during cleanup

Here are the results:

Road Garden - after

Parking Lot Garden - after

You will notice that the beds looks messy. Yes, they are! The cut material went back into the beds as organic matter to help with moisture retention or, if it was too deep, the debris went into one of the four areas of the Woodland Path. Since there were still seeds in this material, some native plants may now grow beside the Woodland Path. See the Appendix A in the 2018 Activity Report for a map of this part of the property.