Positive Changes

     Yes, it's been a while. Lots of thinking, lots of decision-making, lots of novel-reading over the last few months. The upshot: life is good.

    One of the best things is the Harmar Riverbank Pollinator Project undertaken by a group of local volunteers. This city-owned space adjoins a bike path and terminates at a kayak launch. At one time, a neighbor had put in a cottage-style garden on the steep slope next to his home, but time marched on, he got old and eventually died, and the friend who had helped with maintenance also got too old to clamber around the space. Another valiant neighbor took over mowing and using a string trimmer, but there had been no actual gardener tending the site for a number of years. This sunny slope with actual decent soil still flowered, but Johnson grass had invaded, invasive ditch lilies had proliferated in their thousands, and Japanese honeysuckle, bigroot morning glory, and Virginia creeper were creeping all over the hillside. And did I mention the enthusiastic spread of an opportunistic plant beloved of migrating birds--poison ivy? 

    The slope also contained quite a bit of native aster, goldenrod, and wingstem, so once the city gave its blessing to the reworking of the site, our group of volunteers did a plant rescue. We have since learned that the wingstem and aster on this site did not really need our help, but a nearby slope needs all the native composites it can get--a post for another day. We also opted to rescue the streetside border of bearded irises in honor of the site's former gardener.

    Even though the site became "ours" only in late October, we went ahead with solarization, hoping for a warm winter (which we did not get). 

    The site being in possession of good soil, we noticed in March that daffodils were attempting to force the plastic off the site, and, being tenderhearted, we opted to removed one of the plastic sheets and keep more of the historic planting. We also realized that the slope needs to continue to "cook" through the summer to kill off the existing vegetation. This led to a decision to plant only Phase One in the spring.

    The daffodils put on quite a show but proved to be another maintenance headache, as did the Lycoris squamigera (known around here as "naked ladies") at the bottom of the slope. Making room for our native plants required removal of most of the non-native bulbs, which are spending their summer off-site for replanting on the main slope in the fall. The current challenge is finding summer homes for five forty-pound bags and three five-gallon tubs of bulbs, most of which are young and need time in good soil to mature. Sigh.

    But Planting Day finally came. Yesterday, a team of eight volunteers removed the last of the daffodils and ditch lilies and planted a 12 x 35-foot stretch of bank with a mix of mostly native species. (We did include a few zinnias, since first-year blooms are a Very Good Thing, and replanted most of the rescued irises. Others are waiting for Phase Two.) The staircase (in need of a handrail, but still a most useful component of the site) is flanked by two arrowwood viburnums, with spring flowers useful to pollinating insects and fall berries to feed the migrating songbirds. Our main wildflower site got two fothergillas and a mix of Culver's root, spiderwort, anise hyssop, coneflowers, heliopsis, coreopsis, liatris, asters and  whatever else I have forgotten. A variety of native milkweeds will be added once they are available to us. The far end of the site got a dwarf red horse chestnut, letting the kayakers know that they are also included in our plans. 

Apologies to the volunteers who did not make the photo. 

    The Harmar Riverbank Pollinator Habitat may not look like much now, but stay tuned. As our youngest volunteer said yesterday, "These flowers will be here after we're all gone." Or so some of us hope.