SCHG 2021 PV Meadow Project Page

Pittsfield Village is a condominium community, built in 1945, which is situated on 57 acres on the east side of Ann Arbor. This community has worked towards more environmentally sound gardening and landscaping practices in their neighborhood, encouraging less herbicide use, and replacing lawn with native plants.

In the Fall of 2020, the Board of Pittsfield Village approved a plan to convert two areas into meadow. Seed was purchased and sown in these areas. The two meadow locations are easily accessible by the Pittsfield Village residents and a nearby playground in each case provides a reason to visit.

Su Hansen, Joy Knoblauch, Laura Jackson and Lisa Lemble applied for the 2021 School & Community Habitat Grant to plant more plugs and pots to fill and add diversity to their meadow projects. The WCCD was glad to support this enduring project that showed so much investment and commitment from the community members. 

They found that one barrier to the sustainable landscape project has been residents who might complain about the aesthetics. They see these meadows as a multi-year pilot program to demonstrate the beauty of a meadow to the Board and the community. We hope that they are successful in shifting community culture towards sustainability and continue to provide a model and inspiration for other neighborhoods!

by Su Hansen
7/13/2023

It is a joy to see the verdancy and diversity of plant life within our two meadows!  We are seeing native bees and many insects thriving. Except for a small shady section of one of the meadows, the plants are growing densely. We are studying the shady area to determine what we will plant in the Fall to fill that area. We of course have species that invade our preferred meadow plants, mostly from the lawn area. We are going to have the meadows edged to help with this.

​We have modified our volunteer strategy, from steering team-led work parties, to helping individuals and small groups of people to have the confidence and motivation to care for the meadows on their own schedule. We offer occasional work parties; and we are planning a potluck gathering in late Summer/ early Fall to celebrate the meadows, giving neighbors a chance to be introduced to the plants in the meadows.

There has been a lot of appreciation of the meadows, along with some concern, in the Spring, that the meadows were not being maintained, even though they were growing well. We recognized a need to educate our neighbors about the difference between their experience of clearing their personal gardens of debris to tidy them and what we are doing in the meadows. Leaving the dried stems and leaves is beneficial to insects and the meadow itself.

We think that they were missing the profusion of Brown-eyed Susan’s from past late Summer. While we are getting blooms, they are no longer as dominating of the meadows, allowing for the more subtle flowers to shine. We are still in discussion as to whether we will add more Brown-eyed Susan seed in the Fall or accept that these flowers will diminish.

With the beauty of the meadows, our steadfastness in maintaining them, and the benefits to our ecosystem that they provide, we are planning on planting a third meadow. It is a project with far more support than we had when we planted the first meadows. This has opened our community to the need for, and possibility of, adding other environmentally sustainable practices such as adding rain gardens, clover lawns, and more trees.

by Su Hansen
7/19/2022

Installation
David Mindell of Plantwise LLC made recommendations about which plants to select for our two meadows to enhance what was already planted. He also selected some plants that would grow well in our shadier meadow. We allocated the shade-friendly plants in the meadow that gest a lot of shade, and divided the rest between the two meadows, planting the taller plants in the middle. The day after picking up the plants we put in a solid morning of easier work planting which turned much harder by afternoon with a few volunteers finishing up in the next two days. We used a small and a large auger to make the holes to plant the plugs. In addition to that we used shoves to widen the small auger holes. Some people removed some invasives to make room for the new plants. Due to the dryness of the clay soil, we watered the meadows. Approximately ten people were involved at various times throughout the installation. The plants are all doing well, and the meadows are lush.

Challenges

1. The soil in our meadows was hard and dry. It is primarily clay with a lot of tree roots and it hadn’t rained for quite awhile. The large auger we used eventually overheated from hard use. Without the augers we would have had a difficult time planting.
2. There are numerous non-native plants that have spread into the meadows which we could only take a limited time to remove when we were planting.
3. Our meadows have established plants so we had to be very careful we didn’t step on those plants while planting.
4. We didn’t have as many volunteers as we could have used, because there was a community yard sale on Saturday and a potluck on Sunday which had been long awaited and presented a conflict for volunteers and volunteers were on vacation.

​Action Plan

1. Build community interest and support for the meadows. Find easy ways for people to volunteer to care for the meadows. Develop interest by ongoing updates and plant identifications challenges in the newsletter and neighborhood Facebook page. Possibly have an event at the meadow. These are ways that we can ensure that the meadows will be well cared for and supported into the future.
2. Remove non-native invasive plants. We plan to have one or two get togethers to remove these plants. We will also help neighbors to identify those plants and how to remove them, so they can do so easily when visiting the meadows.
3. Whenever we visit the meadows, we will thank the plants for supporting pollinators, for enriching the soil and for the beauty and serenity they give us.