Notes from the Field – May Recap

Thank you so much to everyone who came to volunteer during our Winter and Spring work parties! We ended up having a total of 14 work parties between January and May. We got an incredible amount of work done over the past few months. As the weather warms, we’ll take a quick summer hiatus from work parties (although our Land Management staff will still be hard at work on the trails!).

Our final work party of the season was held at Helfand Farm, our home base. Our to-d0 list was so extensive that we wrote everything that needed to get done on a posterboard to help us keep track.  Invasive plants had been encroaching on Greer’s Garden, our native pollinator garden and micro orchard. During the winter months, we spent a lot of time working on the back areas of the garden. Having accomplished a lot there already, this time we tackled the front corner and the front entrance area. We also worked to pull the roots on invasive plants that were trying to get established in our garden beds. We held a brush burn to take care of these and other invasive plants from previous work parties.

Some other looming projects were also wrapped up. A leaching stone was propped up for guests to view, our antique potato harvester was set on a gravel base for ease of maintenance around it, and repairs to our bench were begun. Many other projects happened concurrently, including weed whacking and annual cleaning, and over 20 other tasks!

Thank you once again to everyone who helps to support us and comes out to volunteer during these work parties! We could not do as much as we do without your continued support. Things will slow down over the summer as our Land Steward and Summer Seasonal Technicians are out working, however one or two pop-up work parties may come up so stay tuned!