The northwest corner of Bush’s Pasture Park has more than three dozen discrete landscape beds of varying sizes and perhaps as many tree circles.
Many of the landscape beds have been neglected for the past several years. (City staff have recently worked to clean and mulch the existing tree circles.) Now, the Conservancy and its corps of Tuesday Gardeners are working to rehabilitate the beds under the supervision of the City’s horticulturist.
Since there has been no previous effort to map or document the landscape beds, the first step was simply to locate, name, photograph, and inventory them. Some of beds date back to the days of Miss Sally Bush in the early 20th Century while others were installed in the past 15 years. Now that the initial inventory is done, MSPC’s Tuesday gardeners will edge and weed the beds, prune the ornamental trees and shrubs, and install wood chip mulch.
Since 2018, the Conservancy has planted additional shrubs, perennials, ground cover plants, and bulbs. Some beds and their plant material may, with approval from the City, eventually be removed and replaced with turf in order to improve circulation and sight lines as well as to reduce overall maintenance needs.