By Jeffrey North
On Earth Day 2023 (April 22), the Belmont Citizens Forum (BCF), in conjunction with the Judy Record Conservation Fund, held its ninth annual Lone Tree Hill Volunteer Day. (See “Volunteers Plant, Clean Up Lone Tree Hill,” BCF Newsletter, May/June 2023, for more information).
Several dozen volunteers rolled up their sleeves, and gardening trowels in hand, planted 350 plugs of young native plants in the Great Meadow and reclaimed meadow areas of Belmont’s Lone Tree Hill Conservation Land in addition to planting 40 white pine saplings to replace the mature pines gradually lost to age and weather. The volunteers planted slender leaf mountain mint, short-toothed mountain mint, wild bergamot (bee balm), white wood aster, blue wood aster, New England aster, and butterfly weed—50 plant plugs of each species.
White wood aster at Lone Tree Hill. Fifty white wood aster and 50 blue wood aster planted close to existing Pennsylvania sedge have survived and put on substantial growth, indicating future success for these fall-blooming perennials. The asters were planted among sedge to discourage browsing by herbivores. Photo: Joe Hibbard
Joe Hibbard, landscape architect, nearby resident, and organizer of the event gave a planting primer to the volunteers before setting them loose in the meadow. Joe had also selected the plants from a specialist nursery in Pennsylvania, and he flagged the locations by species prior to the volunteer day.
Just where to plant, and which species to plant where, were carefully planned to give the young plants the best chance of taking root, avoiding browsers, and prospering in suitable soil, sunlight, and surrounding plants.
Butterfly weed, wild bergamot, and the asters were chosen to attract and nourish Ruby-throated hummingbirds and a host of other bird species, monarchs and other butterflies, bees and other pollinators.
Following Hibbard’s planting plan, the volunteers planted the butterfly weed just below the Pine Allee where the soil is poor and thin, and where rabbits should be wary of raptors that hunt from the open sky above. Newly minted native plant volunteers placed the New England asters in wet areas in the middle of the Great Meadow. Blue and white asters are now spread around the northwest edge of the newly reclaimed meadow area. (See “Lone Tree Hill Restoration Shows Strong Start,” BCF Newsletter, January/February 2022.)
An important consideration is to avoid predation, so the initiative this year included plant species that rabbits and deer are unlikely to eat, like wild bergamot and mountain mint. The asters that might be appetizing to browsers were spread out to avoid wholesale discovery and consumption by animals, and these were planted in open areas where creatures should fear that they are vulnerable to becoming a meal themselves. Planting among existing Pennsylvania sedge, which is not typically browsed, is another tactic of trickery employed this year, hiding the new plants among the established, unpalatable ones.
One hundred plants of two species of mountain mint are doing very well. Unpalatable to browsers, the mountain mints should flower and spread next summer if not late this summer. Photo: Joe Hibbard
These photos were taken two months after the April 22 Volunteer Day planting event. All 350 plants were installed as 5” plugs: 50 butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), 50 blue wood aster (Aster cordifolius), 50 white wood aster (Aster divaricatus), 50 New England aster (Aster novae-angliae), 50 mountain mint (Monarda fistulosa), 50 short-toothed mountain mint (Pycnanthemum muticum), and 50 slender mountain mint (Pycnanthemum tenuifolium).
Fifty butterfly weed seedlings were planted in Lone Tree Hill’s area A1 and the Great Meadow. These have suffered about 50% losses. They were perhaps a bit underdeveloped when planted, but these are tough plants and should survive and flower in two to three years. Photo: Joe Hibbard
Jeffrey North is the managing editor of the Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter and former Conservation Commission representative on the Land Management Committee for Lone Tree Hill.
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