Report of Mary Scott Nature Park workday May 06, 2017
On a sunny blackberry winter day, seven GNPS members met at the Mary Scott Nature Park to continue planting and weeding the front parking lot bed and the pollinator flower bed. A GNPS couple had potted and donated many plants for the front bed, the pollinator bed, and for the woods: Phlox divaricata, woodland aster, seersucker sedge, blue-eyed grass, Stokes’s aster, Juncus, Spiderwort, Oxeye sunflower (Tennessee sunflower), two species of mountain mint, and Bluestar. The new plants were mulched. A couple of workers concentrated on the West Overlook entrance since so many exotic plant pests are clustered there. The nonnative invasives removed included Youngia japonica, dandelion, chickweed, Poa annua, Japanese honeysuckle, jetbead, English ivy, nandina, Microstegium, Acuba, winter creeper, Japanese holly, Wisteria seedlings, and the dreaded chaff flower. A couple of Bradford pear trees were pulled with a weed wrench. We also pulled out a little junk left by the previous owners: a length of cable hidden under the ivy, plus three chunks of asphalt.
The next scheduled workday will be Saturday, June 03, 2017, 1:00-3:00 pm when we plan to remove weeds from the new beds. We will also work along the paths hand pulling Microstegium and excavating the chaff flower plants.