photo by Cecilia Marrero

Decatur Garden Tour

Each year, the Decatur Garden Tour Committee highlights several Decatur gardens for their tour.  This year we are delighted to be one of them.

10 AM - 5 PM Day tour: EcoAddendum Native Plant Garden.

• Hardy native plant species for sale.
• Native plant garden in a woodland setting.

7:00 PM - 9:00 EcoAddendum Evening in the Garden

• Music in a woodland garden setting.
• Featuring wine sponsored by Decatur Package Store.
  
• Delectable nibbles from Feast restaurant.
• Raffle featuring hard to find native plants and shrubs.
• 7:15 Garden tour with Native Plant Specialist Connie Gray
• 8:00 Native plants media presentation with environmental artist Pandra Williams.
• 8:30 Raffle

10 AM - 5 PM Day tour: EcoAddendum Native Plant Garden.

• Hardy native plant species for sale.
• Native plant garden in a woodland setting.

This not-so-sci-fi beast lurks in the canopy of hickory and black walnut trees.  If you think this is a nice, small, run of the mill sort of caterpillar, well, think again.  It’s the size of a hot dog, a turquoise blue hot dog with spikes, not to mention an orange head and “bum.”  The caterpillar of the regal walnut moth crawled down my black walnut tree, and very determinedly searched out an appropriate location to burrow into the ground and pupate.  This process took less than an hour, even with me delaying the search for 5 minutes to pick it up (gently) for a scale photo.  The animal was very particular about the location of its burrow and chose a spot behind a large granite rock with plenty of overhanging vegetation.  Within about 20 minutes, the caterpillar had dug beneath the leaf litter.

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.

Group A :
Agastache sp
Callicarpa americana, Beautyberry
Doellingeria infirma, Cornel leaved aster
Monarda fistulosa, Wild Bergamot
Philadelphus inodorus, Mock Orange
Sambucus canadensis, Elderberry
Group B :
Amelanchier arborea, Serviceberry,
Aronia arbutifolia, Red Cholkeberry
Asclepias tuberosa, Butterflyweed
Aster azureus, Georgia Blue Aster
Ceanothus americanus, New Jersey Tea
Echinacea purpurea, Purple Coneflower
Eupatorium perfoliatum, Boneset
Helianthus hirsutis, Perennial Sunflower
Rudbeckia fulgida, Black-eyed Susan
Stokesia laevis, Stokes Aster
Vaccinium elliottii, Elliot’s blueberry
Group C :
Agastache sp
Callicarpa americana, Beautyberry
Doellingeria infirma, Cornel leaved aster
Hydrangea arborescens, Wild Hydrangea
Monarda fistulosa, Wild Bergamot
Viburnum acerfolium, Maple leafed Viburnum

Tim Wommick of the National Tree Trust is an environmental educator that roams the US giving interactive presentations concerning the social, environmental and economic value of trees. In one hour students were engaged in tree “dress up,” call and response, and some tree based comedy, all geared toward sustainable use of forests, conservation, and jobs in environmental studies.

Dr.Cheryl Young of Mays High School in Atlanta gave a presentation on the geology of the Boat Rock granite. Each student collected a rock, and Dr. Young described a brief geological history of their find.

The day was capped by a hike through the forest and around the lake. The students learned the ID of the different species of trees and plants within the Preserve, and noted the effects of the drought on the area’s lake.

Overall, the students had a great day learning about the forest, the environment, the unique geology at Boat Rock and got to do a little bit of climbing too.

Note: Special thanks to the Tim Wommick (National Tree Trust), Dr. Cheryl
Young (Mays High School) and Team Boat Rock for helping to educate young
people on environmental issues at Boat Rock.

By Pandra Williams and Brad McLeod

The group commented and viewed the recent fire at Boat Rock and talked about how the fire may actually help the forest by reducing fuel load, reducing competing species such as grape vine and spurring on small wildflowers and groundcovers to flourish.

To learn more about Pandra Williams and her ongoing native plant projects and some great photos of Boat Rock, you can go to Pandra’s website: http://www.ecoaddendum.org/

The Boat Rock Preserve is located in southwest Atlanta and encompasses 33-acres and owned by The Southeastern Climbers Coalition (SCC). The SCC encourages school groups to tour the area to learn about the forest ecosystem and environmental education. You can find out more about The Southeastern Climbers Coalition and the Boat Rock Preserve at www.seclimbers.org

A Few Tips for CLimbers on How They Can Save the Vegetation at Boat Rock
1. Dont cut any vegetation
2. Show up at trail days and help us plant native trees, shrubs and ferns
3. Be careful where you put your pad, or better yet, dont climb with one (it squashes plants)
4. Pack it in - Pack it out (ok; that doesnt save vegetation, but help cleanup trash anyhow
5. Drop some change in the kiosk to help pay for next years native plantings
6. Try to leave “No Trace” as best as you can.

Thanks for helping to keep your impact to a minimum and practicing “Leave no Trace”.

The primary purpose of EcoAddendum will be to guide the responsible stewardship in natural areas in the Atlanta area. This will include installing native plants propagated by the Boat Rock Legacy Garden and collected from locally native plant material. The secondary, or additional purpose will be to educate the public in the Atlanta Metro area concerning the importance of native plants to the local ecosystems and wildlife.

Directions to the Florence Kopleff Recital Hall

• From the North: Take I-85/75 South to the Courtland Street exit (Exit 249A); turn right on Edgewood Avenue; go one block ( Hurt Park is on the left); turn left onto Gilmer Street (a one-way street). The Florence Kopleff Recital Hall is located on your immediate right in the Arts and Humanities building (on the corner of Peachtree Center Avenue and Gilmer Street).

• From the South: Take I-85/75 North to the Edgewood/Auburn Avenue exit (Exit 248B); turn left and continue straight on Edgewood. Go straight one block ( Hurt Park is on the left). Turn left onto Gilmer Street (a one-way street). The Florence Kopleff Recital Hall is located on your immediate right in the Arts and Humanities building (on the corner of Peachtree Center Avenue and Gilmer Street). Parking for The Florence
  

Kopleff Recital Hall is available in the I Lot located under the Sciences Annex on Peachtree Center Avenue.

Riding MARTA: Take the North/South or the East/West line to the Five Points station. Exit toward Peachtree Street. After exiting the station, turn right onto Decatur Street. Go through the first traffic light ( Park Place), and then turn left at the next light ( Peachtree Center Avenue – at Walters’ clothing store). Stay on Peachtree Center Avenue to Gilmer Street (second light) and turn right. The entrance to
Kopleff Recital Hall is immediately on your right

4 agastache scrophulariifolia – giant purple hyssop

17 amsonia tabernaemontana - bluestar
10 asclepias tuberosa - butterflyweed
7 asclepias purpurascens – purple milkweed
1 callicarpus americanus - beautyberry
15 ceanothus americanus – New Jersey tea
5 clinopodium georgianum – Georgia calamint or Georgia Basil
1 desmodium rotundifolium – prostrate ticktrefoil
3 eupatorium album – white thoroughwort
4 eurybia surculosa – creeping aster
1 sambucus canadensis - elderberry
1 symphyotrichum pilosum – oldfield aster
1 symphyotrichum lateriflorum – calico aster
10 viburnum acerifolium – mapleleaf viburnum
3 viburnum rufidulum – rusty black haw

There is a lot of ground to fill in; bit by bit it will get done.

This area of the park is mostly on a 60 degree slope, has never been able to hold grass, and can’t be used for events due to the slope. What isn’t on the slope is under the canopy of a magnificent oak tree, and will provide a perfect spot for viburnum acerifolium. The GSU grounds crew were very curious and helped install the plants. They were wonderful – with their help all the plants were installed in 3 hours time.

As for watering, GSU is researching grey water collection from their enormous hvac units. One unit that serves five buildings produces 500 gallons of condensate water DAILY. Georgia Tech already does this type of grey water capture. Once these plants are established, they will be drought tolerant, and need very little care.

Attached is the Hurt Park Press Relese that GSU curator Cathy Byrd sent out.