Montgomery Park Blooms With Native Plantings!
Rod Simmons, Natural Resource Manager / Plant Ecologist, Natural Resources Division, Department of Recreation, Parks & Cultural Activities for the City of Alexandria, Virginia, shared photos of Montgomery Park. There has been amazing growth and establishment of the native wildflowers, grasses, and shrubs now growing and blooming in the park. Many early summer wildflowers are blooming now and others will bloom as the summer and fall progress. Last fall the Natural Resources Division of the Department of Recreation and volunteers from Old Town North planted the slopes that are now thriving.
Most of the spring annual weeds and most of the perennial ones have also been removed. Natural Resources Division personnel should have the weeding fully completed in a couple of hours work time later this week. (We expected a high amount of weeds the first year owing to soil disturbance during planting and established weed seedbanks, but this should greatly diminish each year.)
This project was planned by Natural Resources Field Inspector Mary Farrah. Following the principles of Right Plant, Right Place and ecological restoration best practices, only site-appropriate, locally native plants were used.
Mary is working on an interpretive sign that will be installed at the corner of First Street and N. Fairfax Street. Some minor supplemental plantings will happen later this fall, and when it’s safe to meet in larger groups, a neighborhood event to discuss the native pollinator garden is planned.
The City of Alexandria Natural Lands Management and volunteers from Old Town North worked hard making the September 13, 2019 ecological restoration planting at Montgomery Park a great success! More than 900 site-appropriate native grasses, wildflowers, and shrubs were planted on two steep slopes of formerly mowed turf.
In addition to beautifying the park, this ecological restoration project functions as a large native pollinator “garden” of plants characteristic of woodland edges, old fields and meadows, and roadsides that were once common in Old Town North but are now rare to absent.
Also, in keeping with the goals of RPCA’s Environmental & Sustainability Management System (ESMS), a significant amount of turf is replaced with drought-tolerant (when established) native perennials that do not require irrigation or fertilizers, thereby conserving water resources and reducing lawn chemicals.
For further information as to the species planted see the Native Vascular Flora of the City of Alexandria, Virginia at the City of Alexandria Flora and Natural Communities webpage at http://alexandriava.gov/22560.
Also, the City of Alexandria Natural Resource Management Plan at Natural Resource Management Plan for more on ESMS and other RPCA initiatives.
