Design: Ray Stewart, Webbedfoot Designs
Location: Rotary Park at University Hospital, 254 Cleveland Ave Amherst, OH
Planting Date: June 25, 2023
Partners: Amherst Rotary Club
Description:
It was the winter of 2022 when Ray Stewart, WOGC former VP and current Board Member, approached the Amherst Rotary Club with the proposal to plant a pollinator garden at Rotary Park in the city of Amherst (Lorain County). This location on the main road into town already displayed the rotary flag, a large stone rotary wheel, benches, cafe tables, and a nice annual flower garden.
After some weeks of discussion the Amherst Rotary Club agreed to have the garden installed and Ray got started collecting plants for the project. Some plants were rounded up–some which Ray grew or salvaged , and others were purchased. In all, 600 plants of 35 different native species were collected.
On the morning of the installation, seven full sized pickup trucks queued up in front of Ray’s house at 10am sharp to transport plants and tools three blocks to the park. Plants were unloaded in 8 prearranged segments according to the design. Then the volunteers got to work.
Plants were laid out as quickly as possible to stay ahead of the crew. Volunteers were using a drill with a four- inch auger to drill holes in the sandy soil. At noon a second wave of volunteers came in. Greater Cleveland Wild Ones volunteers, more Rotarians from other clubs, members of the Lorain County Soil and Water District, as well as friends and family pitched in.
Ray couldn’t work fast enough to place plants, but some process oriented folks could see what was needed and started helping to organize. With hardly a break all the plants were in the ground by 3:30pm! (Which was a half an hour before the proposed quitting time.)
Efforts were celebrated and congratulations rang out amongst all 20-25 volunteers. Everyone posed for pictures and rounded up all the pots and tools, and set the sprinklers. The pollinator garden was successfully installed, and as the Rotarians famously say, “service above self”.
Plant list for the design:
- Anise Hyssop – Agastache foeniculum
- Beebalm – Monarda didyma
- Bellwort – Uvularia grandiflora
- Birdfoot Violet – Viola pedata
- Blazing Star, Liatris spicata
- Blue False Indigo – Baptisia australis
- Butterfly Weed – Asclepias tuberosa
- Columbine – Aquilegia canadensis
- Culver’s Root – Veronicastrum virginicum
- Foxglove Beardtongue – Penstemon digitalis
- Golden Alexanders – Zizia aurea
- Interrupted Fern – Osmunda claytoniana
- Iron Weed – Vernonia fasciculata
- Lady Fern – Athyrium filix-femina
- LIttle Blue Stem – Schizachyrium scoparium
- Lyreleaf Sage – Salvia lyrata
- New England Aster – Aster novae-angliae
- Obedient – Physostegia virginiana
- Pennsylvania Sedge – Carex pensylvanica
- Prairie Coneflower – Ratibida pinnata
- Prairie milkweed – Asclepias sulivantii
- Purple Coneflower – Echinaceae purpurea
- Shooting Star – Dodecatheon meadia
- Starry Solomon Seal – Maianthemum stellatum
- Strawberry – Fragaria virginiana
- Swamp Milkweed – Asclepias incarnata
- Threadleaf Coreopsis – Coreopsis verticillata
- White Coneflower – Echinaceae purpurea ‘Alba’
- Wild Geranium – Geranium maculatum
- Wild Ginger – Asarum canadense
- Wild Hyacinth – Camassia scilloides
- Wild Petunia – Ruellia humilis
- Yellow Coneflower – Echinaceae paradoxa