A long-in-the-making wildflower meadow is coming to fruition at Harrison Park.
Work to prepare the near acre-and-a-half site for planting was started by the Friends of Harrison Park (FOHP) in fall 2021, noted Mike Carter, FOHP member.
Since then, the park friends have worked to reduce weeds taking root and recently constructed a walking path through the meadow that will allow parkgoers to see the flowers up close.
We cleared it, then we planted a cover crop for the winter. We planted the wildflower (seeds) last spring. This is the year that we let it rip and see what we’ve got,” said Carter. “We’ve been working with a landscape architect, and we’ve been told the perennials need time to develop. The thing to do the first year was control the weeds and keep them from setting their seeds. Wildflowers don’t need much of anything (to grow). They don’t need good dirt, much water or fertilizer, but what they can’t do is outcompete the weeds.”
“The hardest part about this project has been being patient because we all want to go ahead and see those wildflowers right away,” said FOHP member Linda Lancaster. “But, in order to make sure they have a really good root structure, we had to take it slow.”
Four different mixtures of wildflower seeds have been planted, and they will bloom at different points each spring through fall, Carter noted.
“There’s about 15 different plants altogether,” he added. “One (mixture) is meant to attract Monarch butterflies, while one is a pollinator mix to attract bees. The other two are native meadows, a taller and a shorter meadow. It’s not meant to be one big blanket of color, but different stuff that comes up at different times of the year. Some of it does better in wet, while some does better in dry.”
The past few weeks, FOHP members and other volunteers have been working to construct the rock-lined pathway that runs from one end of the meadow to the other. Carter and Lancaster said other touches like benches and signage to identify the different types of plants may be still to come.
“It’s a mulch pathway lined with rock that’s about six feet wide, so it’s easy walking. If you’re going along the (park’s walking) trail, it will be a nice change of pace to walk through there,” Lancaster said. “Once the flowers come up, they’ll get really tall. This way, people can walk through the meadow and see the smaller flowers among the larger ones when they’re coming up.”
Carter said the wildflower meadow has been a team effort, which has included not only the Friends of Harrison Park, but also local Master Gardeners and Garden Club members among several others who’ve volunteered their time and labor.
“We are so grateful for the volunteers,” Carter said. “We had a great turnout to put in the walking path. The weather was threatening, but they came out anyway. We’ve had several events where we had to call out dozens of volunteers to get it done, and I’m hoping we can continue that.”
The park friends will be doing ongoing maintenance including weed control and mowing at the site, Lancaster noted. They’re hoping the first round of wildflowers will be in bloom by sometime in June.
“We have some flowers out there now, but not too many. If we continue to let it grow, which is what we plan to do, we should start seeing a lot of color in there in a month or so,” said Lancaster.