GROVE: Winter 2015
GROVE: early summer 2015
The upper photo shows what GROVE looks like now that we have taken the fence down in December. It was the perfect time to do so. The ground was soft and we could see what we were doing. Several volunteers joined us ready to remove invasives but I don’t recommend doing much invasive removal work during the winter – the insects live in the leaf litter and the birds will need them come spring. I remove any plant with caution especially in the winter. Sometimes doing nothing is the best thing we can do at the time.
Overall GROVE is doing well. Native trees and shrubs are doing very well. When I have any doubt as to its progress, I simply have to remember that it used to be a mature knotweed forest surrounded by privet, burning bush, and multiflora rose.
There is some occasional knotweed and since the second planting we have an issue with lesser celandine. I am pondering adding some wetland ferns to the ground cover this season and see how that works out. (With Curtis’ approval of course!)
Even though the fence is down I still regard GROVE and its surroundings as my responsibility and will gladly return to tend it several times a year as I have been doing since the beginning.
This year I received my certificate in Advanced Field Botany (although I continue to study every chance I can get). I now can complete a wetland delineation using vegetation and serve on my town’s Conservation Commission. I serve as a Plant Conservation Volunteer leading surveys of rare plants for the state of MA. I mention these qualifications to reassure you that I take my work in GROVE very seriously – work that I hope to continue for a long time.
Happy 2016! Best, Louise Barteau
