Informational sign

Davie will be putting a final application of Roundup herbicide on the Atlantic Street lots tomorrow, which will kill this season’s weeds in the final treatment before seeding at the end of September or in early October.

As we’ve said before here these gardens will take a couple of years to come into their full beauty but I just learned this week that 14 lots were planted in Youngstown in 2010 using the same seed merchant we are using and a similar seed mix. So I took a drive over to see how they are doing this afternoon and took a few photos, including the information sign above

The gardens look good. They are considerably larger than most of the one we are planting, and I don’t think they have received quite enough maintenance as there were a number of saplings and large weeds inside the gardens. But overall, they are a lovely diversion from the many vacant and unplanted lots near them.

The biggest difference was in the number of birds and insects in the gardens. There were infinitely more than in the surrounding areas which resembled a living-creature-free-zone by comparison. There were thousands of small grasshoppers alone. For anyone who doesn’t see extra insects as a benefit I can tell you that they play an important ecological role and it was as if there was an invisible barrier around the gardens that no insect crosses. The wildflower garden is their whole world.

If you are interested in seeing them for yourself the gardens are on the 1000 block of Parkview very near the old entrance to Idora Park. I will return in the fall to take more photos.