Van Cortlandt Park Wildflower Garden

Anything's Better Than Weeds 

With the consent of the Van Cortlandt Park, a site next to the children's playground was chosen to become the experimental Wildflower and Pollinator area, to be developed through the effort of the Woodlawn community. 

This photo is the way it looked 3 years ago in early April, after the weeds had been cleared and a fence put up.

 

We then sowed wildflower seeds, both annuals and perennials. Surprise, surprise, only the annuals made it to maturity. This has become a learning experience ...

But, we did discover that the wildflowers loved the site and the bees and butterflies flocked to our flower selection. So satisfying.

The garden stayed fallow during the winter and we made plans for enlarging it in the spring. That required clearing out lots of invasive weeds, mugwort and grand burdock were the primary enemies requiring very hard down-on-your-knees work. This time we purchased some perennials including Milkweed, Coreopsis, Asters Froth and Black eyed Susans. Even with the Covid pandemic upon us so many volunteers arrived to help plant the small perennials.

The hardest part has always been the removal of the invasive weeds. Even after hours of volunteer hard work the weeds will return and out maneuver our wildflowers for sun and space, leaving the wildflower gasping for light under the leaves of the grand burdock. The flowers that did survive were welcomed by many different types of bees and butterflies, while the children expressed their appreciation of the flowers with their oohs and aahs as they walked by. So, we were very successful in many ways.

In the spring of 2021 the volunteer force came out again to do our work, masks in place. The very enthusiastic volunteers organized by Van Cortlandt Park Alliance (thank you Christina) were great. First, in clearing the weeds and then planting our small wildflowers even more intensively than had been done the previous year, This time we had even better results in the ratio of wildflower to weed but it wasn't easy as we constantly had to return and keep on removing the grand burdock and mugwort. This year we have planted some sedges and other grasses to mingle with the flowers and they seem quite happy too.

Every year we have one area that is reserved for annual wildflowers as they are often the showiest and they are so easy to grow. 

Below is a photo of the Mexican sunflowers that grew to over 10 feet high!

It has been lots of fun, a great learning experience and so so so rewarding. If anyone would like more info just let me know and I might be able to help.

Can't wait to see what perennials will come up this spring. Thanks so much to Christina in the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance, The Park Nursery, Woodlawn Taxpayers and Women of Woodlawn, esp. Maria for all their help and great assistance - this was a real collaboration to give our small bit on this planet a jump start at helping our pollinators and butterflies coexist in a city environment.