For their 21st year, the Friends of Beaver Ponds Park continued to gather every Wednesday evening. Each meeting began under the grand catalpa tree, where members sat on stone benches, sharing introductions, announcements, and stories as they planned their evening’s work. After receiving a grant for a new playground this year, Beaver Ponds Park continued to improve this space through removing invasive species, clearing debris and trash, watering, spreading mulch, and even creating new paths through their garden beds. Even as the group faced plant thefts, they continued to find ways to plant new native plants for people to enjoy. This close-knit group of volunteers continues to innovate and create a special area for all of its surrounding neighbors.
This week, we put in stakes and poison ivy signs, added mulch to the front bed, repaired the deer fence, and weeded invasive overgrowth. Join us next Thursday from 9-11am to help maintain this beautiful space!
MaintenanceTim pruning river birch tree!
07/10/2024
Despite the humid evening, the sky had a gorgeous glow, almost as bright as the smiles on everyone's faces. Everyone was thrilled to be back after a week off! They were also very excited to see the beautiful flowering perennials I brought for them to plant: an agastache, three colorful echinaceas, and a black-eyed Susan. For the newsletter this week, Rebecca interviewed Kelly. At the children's garden, Joan took charge of watering the parched plants with buckets and then the water cart; the plants looked much happier afterward. At the pondside garden, Jim and I (Yvonne) handled off-loading mulch into wheelbarrows, which Eileen, Cecelia, Beatrice, and Ginny helped to spread. At the corner triangular garden, Pat planted an agastache and ensured it received adequate water to survive the heatwave. Nan, Tim, and Frank worked hard to trim the long, interfering branches of the river birches and pine trees. Frank and many volunteers cleared out a large part of our old wildflower garden, liberating numerous native wildflowers, including bee balm and milkweed, which were blooming gorgeously. Nan remarked that this garden hasn't looked this cared for in years! Jim, Sumi, and Eileen wheeled many barrels full of branches, weeds, and other vegetation to the debris pile near the red gate. Nan, Sumi, Kelly, and Eileen diligently documented everything this week. Join us next Wednesday at 6 pm to work on the park with us!
PlantingNan, Eileen, Claire, and Frank helping me clean up with a THRILLING "elevator" ride!
06/26/2024
The evening sun hit our faces as we started this workday with a lot of excitement at our stone benches, as usual! We welcomed Patrick back this week. While they were saddened to hear there would be no workday next week because of Independence Day, they were excited about the work we were going to tackle today. As Joan announced that she had brought supplies for rock painting, the kids jumped with excitement and dashed toward their children's garden. Joan and the kids started by filling the water cart at the pond and watering the plants in the children's garden. Meanwhile, James, Yossi, and Patrick off-loaded pine bark mulch into wheelbarrows, which Tim and Patrick delivered to the stone sign garden. Kelly and I (Yvonne) carefully liberated our cherry tree from a long poison ivy vine and removed other sprouting ones too. Judy, with Patrick's help, removed trash along the road of the park and river. Tim planted two coral bells in our memorial garden, which had been weeded last week. Claire, Eileen, Lin, Nan, and Rebecca continued weeding the overgrown pondside garden. Patrick, Sumi, and Eileen wheeled numerous loads of branches, weeds, and other vegetation to the debris pile near the red gate. A huge shoutout to Nan for documenting so much of the work we do at this park and assisting me (Yvonne) in writing a large portion of this summary! This was such a productive evening, but more importantly, we all had so much fun! Join us the following Wednesday from 6 to 8 pm!
