The new sitting rocks are inspected on their first day
On Friday, June 27, 2014, an LM Township crew installed our Friends of WMC Park sitting stones–each weighing approximately one ton. Thanks to the guys for their patience as we said “No–a little to the left–not quite that far–maybe a little closer to the water–let’s turn it around so the other side faces the stream. . . . ”
Lee, Tessa, and Bailey put the new beach boulders to the test.
June 2014–Chris Bushnell with his new creation
Kudos to our hardworking volunteers for all the work done on the Wildlife and Respite Garden—it just goes to show that dog people are the greatest!
The following people have participated in one or more of the eleven official work days we have had this year: Dan Barry, Ellen Briggs, Paula Burns, Chris Bushnell, Jill Cooper, David Dutwin , Aidan Dutwin, Elias Dutwin, Mary Field, Karen Garbeil, Karen Hinckley, Tessa Lamont, Martha Lombardo , Debby Merker, Hazel Murphy, Ellen Reese, and Toba Spector.
During those official work days, our volunteers have contributed a total of 98 volunteer hours on our garden project, and I think everyone will agree that we have accomplished a lot in those hours.
In addition to the official work days, a number of people have lent a hand doing a variety of tasks such as transplanting daffodils, carrying logs, unstaking trees that no longer needed the stakes in the riparian area, or bringing newspaper and cardboard to the stockpile we built up over the winter to prepare for the garden project (thanks especially to Elaine Stern for the mountains of cardboard she schlepped to the park). And let’s not forget the latest contribution: master craftsman Chris Bushnell just built us a very handsome compost bin using pallets donated by the Tired Hands brewery. It has beautiful hinged doors, is expertly leveled, and will give us plentiful space for compost production. Thanks Chris (and Took, who waited patiently for hours while Chris worked on this project).
As always, thanks to Jamie Markizon for hosting and providing tech support for our website. Click on the Gallery tab at the top of the page to see some pictures. p.s There are so many people who have helped us that I am certain to have left some of you out. This is not a lack of gratitude, just a spotty memory and/or lack of recordkeeping. Please let me know if I’ve unintentionally omitted you and I’ll correct the record!
Wednesday, June 18, 8:30 -11:30 am
Saturday, June 21, 8:30-11:30 am
Wednesday, June 25, 8:30-11:30 am
Saturday, June 28, 8:30-11:30 am
As always, come and go as you please, there’s no obligation to be there for the duration. OUR MISSION: hand weeding existing weeds and covering the ground with cardboard or newspaper, then spreading mulch on top. If any more shrubs have been delivered, we will plant them as well. Please come if you can. You’ll get to know your fellow dog parkers better than ever before. It’s fun!
Report on our four most recent work days (from June 8 to June 13): A total of 6 different volunteers donated 28 hours of labor to the cause. We planted 12 more shrubs (more inkberry holly and seven beautiful Chicago Lustre native viburnum). We also dug out nasty porcelainberry vine wherever we saw it popping up, and laid down cardboard and newspaper and shredded bark mulch to block incipient weeds. We also enjoyed good conversation and a few laughs. A huge THANK YOU to our generous volunteers–
Thank you to yesterday’s volunteers
Six volunteers showed up for our first planting day yesterday. We planted fifteen bog-tolerant shrubs–native inkberry holly and summersweet cultivars–in the soggy area near the gate. Many, many thanks to all our volunteers, each and every one of you did a fantastic job!
Future work plans: Good news/bad news
Bad News: Our first two workdays spent digging deep into the garden to remove invasive vine roots revealed that, not only do we have a frequently boggy area right at the gate, but in other areas there are very large chunks of asphalt and also parking lot gravel in concentrations that will make planting difficult or impossible.
Good news: We met with Dave DeAngelis of LM Parks department and with our site designer, Harriet Cramer of Cramer Design Associates, to discuss how to address this situation. The Township has once again come to the rescue. Township crews will dig out the asphalt and parking lot gravel and fill in with new topsoil. They will also change the location of the big maintenance gate and will add a small gate for public access, so that no one has to wade through a bog to enter the garden. In addition, Cramer Design Associates will redesign the site plan to account for the change in gate locations. Thank you Dave and Harriet!
If all goes well, the Township’s site preparation work and the redesigned site plan will be done next week. The Township will also provide a water tank and a pile of mulch so that we can carry on with our original plan to do more planting and apply cardboard/newspaper and mulch as an organic weed suppressant. In view of these developments the June 1 work day is cancelled. We will let you know the date and time of our next volunteer work day as soon as possible.
In spite of the short notice and the holiday weekend, 10 brave volunteers donated 28 hours of hard labor in our soon-to-be Wildlife and Respite Garden. Most of the work consisted in:
We are proud to report that we have 13 large black contractor bags filled with weeds (mostly porcelain berry roots) waiting to be picked up as trash.
In addition, we signed up 6 new members bringing our total membership to 94 people, and collected $18 in cash donations.
These 2 official work days were preceded by several unofficial work days at which additional volunteers donated their time and expertise transplanting daffodils, unstaking trees in the riparian buffer, and beginning the very challenging weeding process in the garden area.
THANKS A MILLION to all our volunteers, you are the greatest!!
Ellen R does battle with invasive porcelainberry roots
Hazel, Jill and Ziva stop for a photo op
Ellen B, Mary Field, and Dan Barry removing invasive roots with pickaxes
Paula and Dan work on mulching newly planted inkberry holly with newspaper and cardboard
As you may have noticed, the Harriton day of service was cancelled due to heavy rains on their scheduled work day–so we really need our volunteers! Here are our currently planned work days–and please note you can come and go as you please, no need to stay for the entire session.
Saturday, May 24, 2:00-5:00———–weeding, removal of vine roots and unwanted stones/gravel
Sunday, May 25, 2:00-5:00————-weeding, removal of vine roots and unwanted stones/gravel
Thursday, May 29, 2:00-5:00———-planting, laying down cardboard & mulch
Sunday, June 1, 2:00-5:00————–planting if not finished on Thursday, laying down cardboard & mulch
Please bring water, a shady garden hat, and work gloves. Also, we will have some extra tools on hand, but we will NOT have access to the Township’s tools so please bring your own tools if you can. For the two initial weeding days, spades, shovels, pick axes for the vine roots, loppers, and pruning saws should all be helpful. You may want to put your name on your tools to ensure you get them back at the end of the day.
We’re in luck! Students serving in a Harriton High School Day of Service will lay out the cardboard and newspapers many have donated, and also mulch that will be provided free by the township, in our Wildlife and Respite Garden on May 16, 2014. To prepare for the students’ work on May 16, we will weed and mark out the garden path. The students will be supervised by someone from Harriton and also by a representative of L.M. Township. After the mulch is laid down, we will begin planting shrubs. We will plan to start planting around May 22, but stay tuned for more details. Anyone interested in gardening is invited to help plant, water and weed on an ongoing basis.
While we await the Township’s planned site preparation so we can begin our organic weed suppressant project (laying down newspaper and cardboard and then putting mulch over that), we are transplanting the emerging snowdrops and daffodils from the fenced area to the steep bank adjacent. This will brighten up that bank in future and save those plants from being smothered along with the garlic mustard and bishop’s weed that has taken over in there.
For the gardeners among you, the Ellens (that’s Ellen Reese and I) are planning on working on this project for an half an hour or so every day at around 4:00 til it’s done. If anyone wants to help, please let us know before you begin. You need to sign off on a Township waiver form before beginning work, and also bring your own spade or shovel and work gloves.
Ellen Briggs
We will have to reschedule our March 22 work day. Preliminary site preparation of the fenced garden area we are going to work on has been delayed due to the winter weather to date; also, the Lower Merion Conservancy has an event scheduled for the same date and as you know parking is limited. We will let everyone know our new date as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, we are asking everyone to please avoid running your dogs off leash at the park between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. on March 22. During these hours, the StreamWatchers will be working on an invertebrate census in the stream at our park, and loose dogs may hamper their efforts. Thank you in advance for your courtesy!
Also, FYI the Lower Merion Conservancy cordially invites all Friends of WMC to participate in the StreamWatch census on March 22–here is the information:
20th Annual StreamWatch Census, March 22, 2014 – 9:00 am – 1:00 pm,bWest Mill Creek Park
Discover the invertebrate life of Mill Creek while becoming a citizen scientist in our most important ongoing study. Each year, volunteers help us understand the creek’s health by collecting samples of its aquatic life—crayfish and crane flies, mosquitoes and midges, water pennies and worms, all of which are indicators of the water’s quality. This census provides us with the critical scientific data we use in the Mill Creek Report. Meet in the parking lot of West Mill Creek Park. Dress warmly and pack a simple lunch.
For further information, here’s the link to the website:
http://lmconservancy.org/ai1ec_event/20th-annual-streamwatch-census/?instance_id=769