Spring Pond Wildflower Meadow

In fall of 2009, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy presented a two-part educational series “All About Meadows!” encouraging members of the community to learn more about the wildflower meadows in their local park system while exploring and examining the possibility of meadow gardens in their own back yards.

On the evening of Monday, October 26th, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy hosted a lecture at the Arnold Arboretum titled Wildflower Meadows, Public and Private: From your Parks to your Garden featuring guest speaker Scott LaFleur, Horticulture Director at the New England Wildflower Society’s Garden in the Woods. Mr. LaFleur introduced the wildflower meadow as a hallmark of the New England landscape, and discussed meadows and meadow gardening in detail, highlighting the beneficial ecological role that meadows have in attracting and sustaining birds, bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. Several people in attendance had specific questions about installing and maintaining their own meadow gardens, and Scott presented a basic timeline, from preparing the site to selective weeding and the eventual management of paths and edges.

Project manager Catherine Pedemonti spoke about the Conservancy’s continuing efforts to tend the Olmsted Park meadow, including annual mowing, botanic inventories and the removal of woody plant material. One of the primary features of a naturally occurring meadow is the presence of a woodland border or edge. In the meadow in Olmsted Park, woody plants have been moving in from the edge, encroaching on the herbaceous plants and grasses that make up the interior of the meadow today. Catherine highlighted some of the plant species found in the Olmsted meadow, many of which were familiar to the audience. Everyone was invited to attend the second part of the meadow series, an afternoon of volunteering and hands-on activities in the field.

On Saturday, November 7th, volunteers from the surrounding communities of Jamaica Plain and Brookline joined a student group from Brandeis University in Olmsted Park, for a sunny day of meadow maintenance and planting in the woodlands. Senior Project Manager Don Eunson led a group in planting native Amelanchiers and removing invasive species, while Catherine Pedemonti worked with a group on removing woody materials and defining the edges of the meadow. Everyone involved participated in the maintenance of a valuable public resource, and can apply what they have learned about meadow ecology to their own, private sustainable landscapes.

Rethinking the Lawn
By Kate Benisek