The Ravine Enhancement Project is continuing this week with the modest widening of the existing seasonal (seep) stream bed and placement of native erratic boulders at the channel’s edges. The addition of boulders will slow down the water and allow it to infiltrate into the ground and also improve the areas’s appearance. Later, MSPC will…
We have several dozen odd, helical iron posts at Bush’s Pasture Park that hold climbing roses. The posts date from the early 1960’s. Each year, each rose has to be pruned to the ten strongest canes, then wound and tied to the posts’ crossbars. It takes about 40-50 knots per rose and takes anywhere from…
The Ravine enhancement project is moving towards its installation phase, thanks to a supply of local boulders gifted to us by Betty O’Brien of Elton Vineyards and the folks at Willamette Valley Vineyards. Thanks, too, to the City of Salem for use of their trucks. The project is led by landscape designer Ron Miner. “The…
Bush Park’s Chinese Hawthorn tree (aka Crataegus pinnatifida) is at its peak fall color now. The Chinese use the fruit in candy, jam, jelly, and desserts. It’s common to see children eating sugar-coated Hawthorn berries on a stick. Chinese and Western herbalists also use the fruit to treat hypertension and coronary artery disease, to lower…
Recently, one of our Facebook Friends asked “Why is an apple tree at Bush Park called the Diversity Tree?” Turns out there are two Diversity Trees— planted in 1981 and 2005. The Salem Human Rights and Relations Advisory Commission, along with concerned members of the community planted both trees in response to hate activity occurring…
Jim Schomaker, a long-time volunteer with Mission Street parks Conservancy (previously Friends of Bush Gardens) is currently Salem Art Association’s Featured Artist. His exhibit focuses on capturing Bush’s Pasture Park’s roses through photography. “I wanted to show two things; roses start to atrophy and lose their health, withering with the onset of winter, and they…
Mission Street Parks Conservancy has issued a Request-for-Proposal to restore the brickwork that serves as the focal point for the Mae Tarter Old Rose Collection, one of three collections in the City’s municipal Rose Garden. The other two collections are the Sally Bush Rose Collection and the Hybrid Tea and Floribunda Collection. The brickwork restoration is the next step in a multi-year project to…
The MSPC Art Fair Plant Sale, “Cool Plants in the Heat of Summer,” was once again held in the shade of the eastern white oaks south of Bush House Museum. Eleven local growers displayed their fabulous, unusual plants for the delight of would-be buyers for a net of $6,264.00. Sixty-five volunteers helped with everything from…
The formation of Mission Street Parks Conservancy made the cover of the July 19thedition of Salem Weekly. The story reported on the impetus for MSPC’s formation, the response by City officials, and its future plans. “‘I’m really excited,’ said Mayor Chuck Bennett. ‘Improved park maintenance was “obviously badly needed or we wouldn’t have a conservancy…
The Salem City Council unanimously approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Mission Street Parks Conservancy on Monday, July 12. The MOU provides the Conservancy with its “operating license” in Bush’s Pasture Park. The agreement’s main features include: A recognition that Bush’s Pasture Park is and will remain a City park A city employee…