Thursday, July 23, 2009

2009 ~ Looking Ahead

Lots of things have gotten in the way of my getting over to the site this year: Town vehicles and equipment parking at the site as the Springfield road crews work on various projects; lots of rain; volunteer availability; my own time constraints with other events happening in my life.

However, I'll be visiting the site over the next week or so to take some photos of the status of things. Then we will need to pick a work-date ~ we'll need to adjust the landscape fabric that is on-site, cut the knotweed that is poking through, and place some new fabric. I think that we can get away with doing this once, maybe twice, this year.

Next year, (brace yourselves!) I am planning to start reclaiming the management site! Yes, I'm compiling a list of plants to install on the site, in our ongoing attempts to elbow out the knotweed. Here's what I have so far:

* milkweed

* jewelweed

* sumac

* ferns

What I need now is some suggestions for EARLY plants ~ things that start early in the spring, grow large leaves quickly, and can establish themselves on the site before the knotweed gets going. Let me know what you think! I'm trying to allow comments on this site, but you can email me: blackrivercleanup@yahoo.com