Two years after a group of pollinator enthusiasts planted a meadow of native plants in Winchester, they returned to weed out invasives and learn about the beneficial species growing there. WMRA's Ayse Pirge reports.
STEPHANIE MCGONIGAL: So, thistles, those spiky things right there. Getting rid of those, and couple of others.
Stephanie McGonigal is a volunteer with Sustainability Matters, a regional environmental nonprofit.
MCGONIGAL: We’re removing, like the invasive plants that would be in the way of all the native plants that are here. … So, we want them to flourish, so we got to remove the things that would get in their way.
About 10 volunteers were cleaning up the meadow at Jim Barnett Regional Park in Winchester on Sunday. It first began as a partnership between Sustainability Matters and the City of Winchester Department of Parks and Recreation.
Andrea McGimsey is the executive director of Sustainability Matters. She gave credit to Sari Carp.
MCGIMSEY: So, initially this was the vision of the founder of Sustainability Matters. Basically, when she saw grass, she saw visions of native meadows to help the butterflies and bees… and lots of wildlife.
McGimsey says that when she joined Sustainability Matters, the city park staff had already designated the area for the meadow.
MCGIMSEY: And it’s in the middle of the arboretum, but because of the rocks, they couldn’t plant trees, and also it made it very difficult to mow. … So, they were actually very excited about the idea of putting in a native meadow.
JACK MONSTED: This one here, that is a native plant that’s up close to us. That’s a whitish purple one, that is a native plant. That’s called beardtongue, or penstemon. You can see there’s a little bumblebee on it right now.
Jack Monsted is on the technical board for Sustainability Matters. He is also the assistant curator at the State Arboretum of Virginia. He says that the first year the meadow was planted–
MONSTED: It was all from seeds. So, it was just a dirt field basically… And the second year, last year, it was a whole bunch of black-eyed susans, which are beautiful, yellow flowers that were blooming all throughout the meadow. And this year, we still have a lot of black-eyed susans coming up, but we’re seeing a lot of other diversity in the meadow too.
There will be a celebration of the meadow on June 20th, where a bench will be dedicated in honor of Sustainability Matters’ founder Sari Carp, in the middle of the meadow.
