What are those plants?
Culpeper County has been working hard to plant Virginia native plants around the county, so I made that a focus of this design. Here’s the plant list:
Willow Oak, Quercus phellos
St. Johns Wort, Hypericum spp.
Virginia Sweetspire, Itea virginica ‘Henry’s Garnet‘
Joe Pye Weed, Eupatorium purpureum ‘Baby Joe’
Blue False Indigo, Baptisia australis
How I got involved
Last year I was scrolling mindlessly through Facebook, as one does, and I saw the Star Exponent article about the new playground being built by Eastern View High School. What really caught my eye was the fact that it was designed as an inclusive playground, with equipment to allow kids with disabilities to have fun. I immediately reached out to the Parks and Rec department to find out if they needed landscaping.
Parks and Rec director John Barrett confirmed that yes, they could certainly use someone willing to donate the landscaping, so I volunteered. As you may recall, 2018 was a nightmare year for rain, and the project faced delay after delay. Kids were using the playground, but 2018 ended with the playground still waiting for plants.
Late this spring, we finally had some room open up in our schedule and we could do what we promised! It took us about a day to get everything in and mulched, and it looks great. Culpeper has been good to us, so it felt wonderful to give back.
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