During the September 21, 2022, Friends of Fonticello Park meeting with Parks and Recreation, Shamar Young proposed that the city could begin immediately working on a native meadow in the old playground space. He indicated they would be willing to till and level the area and plant wildflower seed in that space as part of the city’s attempt to become a “Bee City” .

While this idea was intriguing, unfortunately, wildflower mixes are only native to the country usually, not the region. While they would provide immediate gratification, the Friends of Fonticello Park would rather see this done with true native plants from our local ecosystems. We want to make this an educational space in the park, where community members can come to learn about local ecosystem plants, how they support wildlife and native pollinators, increase soil health, and contribute to cleaner waterways. Our hope is that we may even be able to support seed sharing for folks to plant in their own yard gardens.

From this meeting, Friends of Fonticello Park reached out to Ashley Moulton of Moulton Hot Natives and Bill Shanabruch of Reedy Creek Environmental for help. On September 26, volunteers from the Friends group, Ashley and Bill met in the park to devise a plan and course of action. We are currently in talks with Parks and Recreation about moving this initiative forward.

The Park system came out January 11, 2023 and tilled and leveled the space in preparation for planting. We are currently raising funds to purchase plants for our Fall 2023 planting. We have applied to two grants that would fund this work. More info coming soon!

If you are interested in getting involved, please reach out using the Gift of Time form on the Getting Involved page.