2021 WCCD School & Community Habitat Grant Awardee Report:
Pittsfield Village - Sustainable Meadow Project
Picking up the plants at the Native Plant Expo & Marketplace
he Pittsfield Village is a community of condominiums built in 1945 situated on 57 acres on the east side of Ann Arbor. It is also a community of people many of whom have been working towards more environmentally sound gardening and landscaping practices in their neighborhood, by encouraging less herbicide use and replacing lawn with native plants.
In the fall of 2020, the Board of Pittsfield Village approved a plan brought forth by a group of residents to convert two areas into meadow. Seed was purchased and sown in the late fall on two areas within Pittsfield Village property with the approval of the Board. The two meadow locations are easily accessible by the Pittsfield Village residents and a nearby playground in each case provides a reason to visit.
Su Hansen, Joy Knoblauch, Laura Jackson, and Lisa Lemble applied for the 2021 School & Community Habitat Grant to plant more plugs and pots to fill and add diversity to their meadow projects. The WCCD was glad to support this enduring project that showed so much investment and commitment from the community members.
They found that one barrier to the sustainable landscape project has been residents who might complain about the aesthetics. They see these meadows as a multi-year pilot program to demonstrate the beauty of a meadow to the Board and the community. We hope that they are successful in shifting community culture towards sustainability and continue to provide a model and inspiration for other neighborhoods!
In the fall of 2020, the Board of Pittsfield Village approved a plan brought forth by a group of residents to convert two areas into meadow. Seed was purchased and sown in the late fall on two areas within Pittsfield Village property with the approval of the Board. The two meadow locations are easily accessible by the Pittsfield Village residents and a nearby playground in each case provides a reason to visit.
Su Hansen, Joy Knoblauch, Laura Jackson, and Lisa Lemble applied for the 2021 School & Community Habitat Grant to plant more plugs and pots to fill and add diversity to their meadow projects. The WCCD was glad to support this enduring project that showed so much investment and commitment from the community members.
They found that one barrier to the sustainable landscape project has been residents who might complain about the aesthetics. They see these meadows as a multi-year pilot program to demonstrate the beauty of a meadow to the Board and the community. We hope that they are successful in shifting community culture towards sustainability and continue to provide a model and inspiration for other neighborhoods!
Sustainable Meadow Project 2023 - One Year Project Report
by Su Hansen
7/13/2023
by Su Hansen
7/13/2023
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It is a joy to see the verdancy and diversity of plant life within our two meadows. We are seeing native bees and many insects thriving there also. Except for a small shady section of one of the meadows, the plants are growing densely. We are studying the shady area to determine what we will plant in the Fall to fill that area. We of course have species that invade our preferred meadow plants, mostly from the lawn area. We are going to have the meadows edged to help with this.
We have also modified our volunteer strategy from steering team-led Work parties to helping individuals and small groups of people to have the confidence and motivation to care for the meadows on their own schedule. We will of course still offer an occasional work party and we are planning a potluck gathering in late Summer, early Fall to celebrate the meadows and to give neighbors a chance to be introduced to the plants in the meadows. While there has been a lot of appreciation of the meadows, we noticed some concern in the Spring that the meadows were not being maintained, even though they were growing well. We recognized that there is need to educate our neighbors about the difference between their experience of clearing their personal gardens of debris to tidy them and what we are doing in the meadows; leaving the dried stems and leaves to support beneficial insects and the meadow itself. We also think that they were missing the profusion of Brown-eyed Susan’s from past late Summer. While we are getting blooms, they are no longer as dominating of the meadows, allowing for the more subtle flowers to shine. We are still in discussion as to whether we will add more Brown-eyed Susan seed in the Fall or accept that these flowers will diminish. Because of the beauty of the meadows, our steadfastness in maintaining them and the benefits to our ecosystem that they provide, we are planning on planting a third meadow and are going into the project with far more support than we had when we planted the first meadows. This has also opened our community to the need and possibility of adding other environmentally sustainable practices such as adding rain gardens, clover lawns and more trees. |
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WCCD School & Community Habitat Grant - Project Report - 2022
by Su Hansen
7/19/2022
Installation
David Mindell of Plantwise LLC made recommendations about which plants to select for our two meadows to enhance what was already planted. He also selected some plants that would grow well in our shadier meadow. We allocated the shade-friendly plants in the meadow that gest a lot of shade, and divided the rest between the two meadows, planting the taller plants in the middle. The day after picking up the plants we put in a solid morning of easier work planting which turned much harder by afternoon with a few volunteers finishing up in the next two days. We used a small and a large auger to make the holes to plant the plugs. In addition to that we used shoves to widen the small auger holes. Some people removed some invasives to make room for the new plants. Due to the dryness of the clay soil, we watered the meadows. Approximately ten people were involved at various times throughout the installation. The plants are all doing well, and the meadows are lush.
by Su Hansen
7/19/2022
Installation
David Mindell of Plantwise LLC made recommendations about which plants to select for our two meadows to enhance what was already planted. He also selected some plants that would grow well in our shadier meadow. We allocated the shade-friendly plants in the meadow that gest a lot of shade, and divided the rest between the two meadows, planting the taller plants in the middle. The day after picking up the plants we put in a solid morning of easier work planting which turned much harder by afternoon with a few volunteers finishing up in the next two days. We used a small and a large auger to make the holes to plant the plugs. In addition to that we used shoves to widen the small auger holes. Some people removed some invasives to make room for the new plants. Due to the dryness of the clay soil, we watered the meadows. Approximately ten people were involved at various times throughout the installation. The plants are all doing well, and the meadows are lush.
Challenges
Action Plan
- The soil in our meadows was hard and dry. It is primarily clay with a lot of tree roots and it hadn’t rained for quite awhile. The large auger we used eventually overheated from hard use. Without the augers we would have had a difficult time planting.
- There are numerous non-native plants that have spread into the meadows which we could only take a limited time to remove when we were planting.
- Our meadows have established plants so we had to be very careful we didn’t step on those plants while planting.
- We didn’t have as many volunteers as we could have used, because there was a community yard sale on Saturday and a potluck on Sunday which had been long awaited and presented a conflict for volunteers and volunteers were on vacation.
Action Plan
- Build community interest and support for the meadows. Find easy ways for people to volunteer to care for the meadows. Develop interest by ongoing updates and plant identifications challenges in the newsletter and neighborhood Facebook page. Possibly have an event at the meadow. These are ways that we can ensure that the meadows will be well cared for and supported into the future.
- Remove non-native invasive plants. We plan to have one or two get togethers to remove these plants. We will also help neighbors to identify those plants and how to remove them, so they can do so easily when visiting the meadows.
- Whenever we visit the meadows, we will thank the plants for supporting pollinators, for enriching the soil and for the beauty and serenity they give us.
"It Takes a Village"
Joy Knoblauch
6/18/2022
It takes a village: coordination and timing from Su , plant pick up by Lisa, planting by Laura, Joy , and many more. We allocated the shade-friendly plants in the meadow that gets shade, and divided the rest between the two meadows. With the taller plants in the middle of our hexagonal meadows (they used to be mulched picnic areas treated regularly with herbicide) we got to work in our very hard clay soils. A solid morning of the easier work turned to an afternoon of hard work, a few volunteers finished up over the next week. We were lucky to have a few good rains, and a few good neighbors with hoses. We appreciate the seedlings and wish them well as they put down roots.
Joy Knoblauch
6/18/2022
It takes a village: coordination and timing from Su , plant pick up by Lisa, planting by Laura, Joy , and many more. We allocated the shade-friendly plants in the meadow that gets shade, and divided the rest between the two meadows. With the taller plants in the middle of our hexagonal meadows (they used to be mulched picnic areas treated regularly with herbicide) we got to work in our very hard clay soils. A solid morning of the easier work turned to an afternoon of hard work, a few volunteers finished up over the next week. We were lucky to have a few good rains, and a few good neighbors with hoses. We appreciate the seedlings and wish them well as they put down roots.
