Butterfly and Pollinator Garden Workday #1 at Village Creek SP

Butterfly and Pollinator Garden

The Butterfly and Pollinator Garden will be located across the road from the Park office between the office and the Nature Center, so it will be highly visible.  Crushed limestone walkways are planned to connect the parking lot, front path, and new ramp off the back of the porch.  These pathways will also delineate the planting areas and direct traffic to the different areas.  A Boy Scout Troop is already hard at work building the new ramp and it should be finished in the next week or so.

The first workday is Saturday June 24 from 9am until noon.  At this first workday the focus will be on getting the area ready for building the walkways and planting areas by removing unwanted vegetation.  Natural Resources guidelines don’t allow for herbicide use or the use of tillers or heavy equipment, so all vegetation removal will be by hoe and pruners.  Fortunately, the area is not heavily wooded or weedy and we are keeping quite a bit of the native vegetation, so, yaupon, bunch grasses, and sedges are the primary plants that we will be removing at this time.  Getting the plants up by the roots will lessen some of the weed problems in the future too.  Working with just a hoe, I was able to clear a 5’ x 6’ area in about ½ hour, so many hoes will make a big difference!

NOTE:  The second workday on Saturday, July 8, from 9am until noon will focus on getting remaining vegetation removal completed and starting on putting in the gravel walkways.