Students plant trees, prepare garden spaces for season in day-long event
Contributed by E. Dianne Campbell
“Hands on Fluvanna” kicked off spring break for Fluvanna County High School seniors with a day of hands-on conservation work at Pleasant Grove Park, where students planted trees, improved walkways, and prepared community garden spaces.
Students Vickie Zavadsky’s and Sherry Esch’s English classes planted more than 100 donated trees along the park’s meadows, while AP Environmental Science teacher Amy Richardson and teacher Patric Tubman led efforts to prepare the Butterfly Garden and Community Garden for visitors.
Working alongside Master Gardeners and volunteers, the students contributed to a broader plan, led by Walter Hussey — a Master Gardener, Master Naturalist, and Tree Steward — to restore 50 acres of meadowland across the park. The project aims to expand wildlife habitat, with the long-term goal of bringing back species such as the northern bobwhite quail.
Supporting Nature’s creatures
Native plums were planted along the higher meadow. These are a particularly good addition, since their blossoms are used by the full spectrum of butterflies and other pollinators, even those that are usually specific in their preferences. The plums will then offer a food source to larger animals– as well as hikers passing by.
Along the lower meadow, where the soil is wetter, students planted button bush trees. When in bloom, the air around them vibrates with the buzzing of native pollinators who find them irresistible.
Working in teams, students dug through the existing roots and the notorious Virginia red clay to make a hole approximately two feet wide and two feet deep. They broke up the soil and saved it on a piece of cardboard, made a mound in the bottom to accommodate the seedling root spread, placed the seedling, then carefully closed the hole with the crumbled soil. Each seedling was staked on the north side, then a protective tube was slid over it and zip-tied to the stake. The tubes were then topped with netting to prevent birds from entering and getting stuck inside.
Many students autographed their tree tubes.
Getting ready for visitors
Meanwhile, students were also preparing the Butterfly Garden and the Community Garden for the seasonal influx of visitors and summer gardeners.
Bartlett Tree Experts donated a truckload of wood chips, which needed to be forked into wheelbarrows, transported to the Butterfly Garden walkways, and evenly spread. Master Gardeners regularly maintain the walkways and beds on mornings twice a week. Visitors stroll the Butterfly Garden pathways at any time of day, all year long, as it is open to the public and offers interest throughout the seasons.
In the Community Garden, the gravel walkways dividing the 97 rented plots had already been overrun with weeds and needed clearing. Rakes, weeding tools, and collection bins in the hands of the teens soon had walkways tidy and ready for this summer’s gardeners.
During the summer months, a team of Master Gardeners is dedicated to regularly maintaining the walkways and gathering areas and to coordinating the donation of harvested produce to local food banks. Soon, this garden area will flourish with annual flowers, attracting pollinators to the vegetables grown there.
It was a good day of honest labor and horticultural education for the teens. Pleasant Grove Park certainly benefited from their tending. And for the Master Gardeners, it was awfully nice to share the day with their dear young faces.
