What: Casual Monday
Who’s Invited: All Parkwood residents
Where: meet at the cut-through street south of Parkwood Park
When: This Monday, July 11, 2011 at 9 a.m.
Why: Because it’s casual (see below)
What is Casual Monday, you ask? Well, casual really means casual, in our case! You put on long socks, rubber boots, old ratty jeans or long pants, your long-sleeved shirt, and your work gloves, and you show up with either loppers or a chainsaw in your hand! If you hate Mondays, this is the perfect way for you to avoid the office and take out all of your Monday morning frustrations on invasive plants!
As Park Chair Sheri Kennedy explained at June 13’th neighborhood-wide meeting, the Park Committee is hosting weekly Monday morning Park Cleanups this summer, very similar to the ones we hosted last fall and winter. But these summer Mondays in the Park are going to be more casual: you can come for only a couple of hours (or more if you like), you can be home before lunch, you can bring your own water and tools with you (we won’t be supplying water, snacks, or tools this time), and we won’t be closing off any streets or piling up any debris along the edges of the Park. We’ll do this every Monday morning this summer from 9 to 11 a.m., so the schedule is casual: you can come as often or as infrequently as you’d like — you can come one week and not the next — whenever! Of course we’d like to see a nice little turnout every Monday morning, but we’ll be happy if you just show up and help out whenever you can. The invitation is always open!
This is what we need your help with this Monday morning: We’ll be removing those nasty invasive plants that we missed last fall and winter. We’ll need people with loppers to help us lop down:
- exotic Holly trees (NOT American Holly)
- Bush Honeysuckles
- Chinese/Japanese Privet
- Leatherleaf Mahonia
- Cherry Laurels
- Rose of Sharon
- Nandina
All of these are both exotic and invasive and need to go! We also need one or two people with chainsaws, to help us with the exotics that the loppers can’t touch. GUYS: This is your time to shine!
If you don’t know what these plants look like, not to worry. Rebecca Kerimbaev and Steve Elmore and possibly other Committee members will be there to show you how to easily identify these invasives. Before you know it, you’ll be spotting these things all over the place and will have fun lopping and chainsawing away. We will provide you with the stump killer. Depending upon how many people show up, we may tackle the Park perimeter only, or send a couple of people onto the trails.
Don’t forget to bring water, loppers (shears not needed as much), and/or chainsaw. Remember to wear protective pants, sleeves, and gloves. Also, if you don’t mind: if you think you’ll be coming this Monday, please email me to let me know, and if you think you can bring a chainsaw, please include that in your email. Your volunteer hours will be tallied and recorded for posterity and greatly appreciated! See you there!
Parkwood Garden Club 