In 2011, the Centreville Garden Club adopted the Centreville Regional Library entrance gardens.
Centreville — In 2008, immediately after its inception, the Centreville Garden Club took on its first community project: a refurbishment of the planters around the Sully Government Center. The plant selection by former garden club member Kate McTigue emphasized drought tolerant plantings. Plants are flourishing. This year and last a few amendments were made that included additional native plantings. Native plantings are important because they help protect biodiversity of species. They also are easier to grow since they are adapted to our soil and climate and require less supplemental water and no fertilizer once established.
In late 2011 the garden club adopted the Centreville Regional Library entrance gardens as an additional ongoing community project. In the summer of 2013 a collaborative effort between the garden club, library branch manager Christine Jones, and the Friends of the Centreville Library began, with the intent of renovating/removing the existing struggling plantings to create more resilient gardens relying heavily on native plants. Thoughtful research went into selecting the best native plants for the site based on drought tolerance and light requirements but also with an eye to coordinating them colorwise with the surrounding remaining trees and shrubs. The garden club was able to provide chosen plants to the library at wholesale prices. While not completely native, the beds do include varieties such as: Coreopsis verticillata 'Moonbeam', Phlox stolonifera 'Home Fires', Boltonia 'Snowbank', Penstemon ‘Husker Red’, Amsonia tabermontana, and Sisyrinchum (blue-eyed grass). Drought tolerant sedum varieties are featured in high traffic areas.
Garden club members came out to swiftly plant the new additions. Plantings are financed by the Friends of Centreville Library and the garden club. This spring the Centreville Garden Club added a few additional native plants including ascelpias. Ascelpias have the added benefit of offering a great source of nectar for butterflies.
Garden club efforts coincide with a new Fairfax County initiative emphasizing the use of native plants. Learn more at: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/nvswcd/newsletter/nativeplants.htm
In its latest community enhancement project, the club donated plants for the creation of a small herbal and native garden in a neglected area near the intersection of Northbourne and Doyle Lane. The hardscaping of this garden was created to commemorate resident Tim Lyons. Original plants had not survived but have now been replaced with, again, more drought tolerant perennials and herbs that should do better in the sandy soil that surrounds much of the hardscaping. Plants came from garden club members’ yards, nursery sources, as well as the 2013 annual seedling sale from Northern Virginia’s Soil and Water Conservation Districts and were arranged by club Civic Project chair Karin Rindal. Keeping back the invasive weeds from this area that borders woodland is an ongoing challenge. Invasive plants such as Japanese honeysuckle, which smell enticingly fragrant, are a terrible plague to native plant diversity. Current Centerville Garden club President Cathy Sly encourages local residents to do their part in removing invasive species from their property. “Garlic mustard is an invasive that is easy to identify and even easier to pull,” says Sly. Learn more about invasive weeds in the area at http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/natural_heritage/documents/invlist.pdf
The Centreville Garden club meets on the third Monday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Sully Government Center from September through May. Contributions to further the work and educational efforts of the Centreville Garden club can be directed to Centrevillegardenclub@gmail.com
The Centreville Garden Club was founded in 2007. The club’s stated goal is to educate members and to provide horticultural-related outreach to the community. For more information about Centreville Garden Club go to Centrevillegardenclub.blogspot.com.