MinervaFlora April Update

Replacing Burning Bush (Euonymus alatus) with natives. 

Burning bush has been used and overused in garden landscaping for years. Minerva Park's newest plantings were placed by MI when building the new development, include a large number of Burning Bush, hopefully to be replaced in the near future.  It is a highly invasive non-native that disrupts our local ecosystem by spreading rapidly into forests and fields (often via bird) forming thickets (that crowd out our native plants) and reduces biodiversity with little value to local wildlife. By doing so, this shrub contributes to the decline of native birds and pollinators.

Native alternatives that prefer sun or partial shade and moist, well-drained soil and have fall appeal like burning bush are:

• Red Chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia) - a multi-stemmed shrub with white flowers, red berries and beautiful red color in the fall. Its berries are great winter food for songbirds and small mammals andit’s dense branching provides protection. The flowers support pollinators in spring. Generally considered deer resistant!

• Virginia Sweetspire (Itea virginica) - a multi-stemmed shrub which can be semi-evergreen, hosts 3-6” bottlebrush-shaped  white flower clusters in spring, attracting butterflies, bees and hummingbirds. Woody capsules have tiny seeds which are eaten by songbirds in late summer/early autumn. Fall leaf color ranges from copper to orange and gold. 

Look for MinervaFlora in the coming months to be removing invasives and replacing with native plantings. We’ll be the resident volunteers with the bright chartreuse vests on. We’re happy for help, so please join us. Look on the MPCA Facebook page for dates and times.

Community Garden:

We have received a grant from the Scott’s Miracle-Gro Foundation. It will be used to replace more boxes and for soil amendments. A BIG thank you to Scott’s and to Northland Alliance for being our fiscal sponsor again this year.  Last year we donated over 1000 lbs to local food pantries. I’ll hope to increase that number this year! The Master Gardener Volunteer group will be starting again in mid-April. If you are interested in renting a plot, let me know.  I will know the availability by April 1 and at this point,  I there is a waiting list.