The Conservancy is fortunate that landscape-related projects are considered “essential services” so that, even during these times of restricted activity, we are continuing to make progress in stewarding and renewing our fragile landscape. We have much work to do to recapture Ellen Biddle Shipman’s pioneering vision for our wild gardens, and we remain dedicated to this work. Thanks to our staff, contractors, and hard-working volunteer designers and gardeners — as well as expert advice and oversight from the DC Historic Preservation Office — here is what’s happening at Tregaron this season:
- We’ve brought on several new volunteer “zone gardeners” (now totaling 12), each of whom has adopted his or her own garden at Tregaron. (Feel free to ask them about their gardens when you see them!)
- Volunteers have removed fast-spreading invasives, cleared vines, and pruned dead wood from our original, century-old rhododendrons.
- We have given our native meadows their annual “haircut” with the required early-season mowing and will soon be planting more native wildflowers.
- We’ve cleared significant storm damage, removing three large downed trees and other debris. Woodpeckers and insects are enjoying the wood we’ve left behind!
- Landscape designers Tamara Belt and Ann Brooke have designed and we will soon be planting new gardens by the Lily Pond with erosion-control features and Shipman-inspired flowering plants.
- We’re replacing our aging bubbler in the Lily Pond in hopes of seeing signs of our resident bullfrogs in the coming weeks.
- We’re managing Tregaron even more sustainably, using on-site materials and adding coir matting to reduce erosion. And thanks to the Washington International School, our 3-bin compost system is up and running and a new curb has been installed along the Macomb-side driveway to reduce storm-water flows onto Conservancy land.
- We will be adding more lush, native plantings to existing gardens throughout the Conservancy, including the new Klingle Road entryway garden.
Whether you spend time walking the trails, relaxing by the pond, or photographing our plants and wildlife, we hope you will appreciate these enhancements to our historic landscape. (Learn more about our mission and landscape-related goals here.) Many thanks to our supporters, volunteers and weekly crew for making all of this progress possible.