Had to do a photo scavenger hunt at Camp Long. Six groups of 5 competed for the most points by finding the biggest tree, spider web, sign of birds, 2016/17 flagging, GSP signs, Neighborhood Bullies, madrone seed, a heart in Nature, climb the rock, make a Haiku, dance and all kinds of shenanigans. It was quite fun, but our team didn't win.
As Spring sprung Seattle Parks planting season comes to an end. The plants planted in Fall and Winter have much better chances for survival as they have good conditions to recover from transplant shock in the wet months. Planting season starts again in November 2018.
Learn more on the Green Seattle Partnership website Out of over 500 native plants we received for Fairmount Park we worked really hard over the last weeks to plant as many as possible before Spring. The challenge we faced was that the mass of invasive plants we removed took up so much space that the areas that were planned for replanting were limited. For the last 80 plants we had to branch out in the area were we haven't started removing invasives yet. Also, because of wildlife feeding on the invasives it's recommended to only take out about 25 % every year, so the new plants can take over and feed in the upcoming years instead. We got the majority of our new plants in the ground in November and January, and now the leftovers in February and March. For the next season we will maintain and remove the invasives growing back and for the dry months we will need to find a way to water the new plants. And in Fall we can start taking out more blackberries and replant with more native berries. On this Saturday we talked about the development and volunteer action the Fairmount Playground has seen over the last year and then planted a Western Yew together.
We split up the group and the older boys headed to the South end of the park to tackle Blackberries while the rest planted 10 conifers and 15 understory plants. We celebrated our accomplishments and shared what we learnt. Thank you all! Spent 7 hours on restoration work at Fairmount Playground today. Planted Kinnikinick, rescued a little fir from Holly, planted a Hemlock and Huckleberry on an old stump, spread some seed mix. Hand sore from clipping big holly branches and back from being chair bound for much too long in my life, but didn't want to stop.
Got to listen to 5 inspiring old time Forest Stewards all kinds of wisdom.
Got some ideas how to improve my work parties: Marking boundaries. Giving outline on time. Having something to do for volunteers arriving on time (waiting for late comers) Quiz and give park/work related gifts Listened in on Target Forest Types Need to visit Martha Washington Park (Taboo) and learn my trees Got to learn about fruit and the parts of a plant. Fruit is the ripen ovary of a plant. Can be interior or ??? depending where it grows on the flower. Three great High School girls came out to help me plant some Indian Plums, build a fence out of branches and blackberry canes and pull some ivy in Bee Heaven. Sarah and some of her friends came out and helped us move some mulch.
It's funny how different one work party is from the next - in volunteers, tasks, weather and all. |
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February 2024
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