EcoAddendum and West Atlanta Watershed Alliance working together.

Darryl Haddock and Pandra Williams clearing the garden bed of invasive plants at OAC.

EcoAddendum coworkers Connie Gray and Pandra Williams teamed up with Darryl Haddock from the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance to knock out invasive plants and work on installing the first part of the native plant proposal at the Outdoor Activity Center in southwest Atlanta.

Connie Gray, who is also the president of Georgia Exotic Pest Plant Council, is shown here removing a vine that looks like a native grape, but is actually a porcelainberry, Ampelopsis brevipedunculata. Porcelain-berry is a vigorous vine that overgrows native vegetation, pulling good habitat plants down and shading them out.

Darryl Haddock and Derek Roqumore, had both done the lion’s share of work cleaning out large non-native hollies. Garden variety species of iris as well as large quantities of helleborus were offered to neighbors. In the place of these common garden plants a native plant butterfly garden with an emphasis on biodiverse plants from the Georgia Piedmont will be installed over the course of the next few months.

Connie Gray removing porcelain-berry.

The first plants to be installed were beauty berry, purple coneflower, stone mountain daisies, and spider wort. Eventually both sides of the driveway and the front garden bed will be repopulated with a diverse range of shrubs and perennials, most of which are native to the Georgia piedmont area. The shrubs selected not only have wonderful blooms, but also provide habitat and food sources for wildlife such as songbirds and butterflies.

Darryl Haddock installing native plants at OAC.