A Farewell to the 2019 Gardening Season

Today brings to a close the 2019 gardening season for Mission Street Parks Conservancy. Our hardy, talented and good looking band of volunteer gardeners contributed 1,545 hours to the care of the park’s 50 plus landscape beds and greenhouse plants. Over the course of this year, they planted over 100 trees and shrubs, hundred of…

Bed 700 – Church ST Bridge North

The plants in this bed include: Camellia sasanqua cv. (Winter Camellia) Enkianthus campanulatus Forsythia cv. Camellia sasanqua ‘Apple Blossom’ Hamamelis vernalis ‘Lombart’s Weeping’ (‘Lombart’s Weeping’ Witch Hazel Vaccinium parvifolium (Red Huckleberry) Fragaria vesca (Woodland Strawberry) Tiarella trifoliata (Foamflower) Polytstichum munitum (Sword Fern) Maianthemum stellatum (Starry False Solomon Seal) Cyclamen coum (Persian Violet)

2019 Proposed Tree Removals

Mission Street Parks Conservancy and the City of Salem reviewed the Bush Pasture Park tree collection this summer. We identified 12 trees for removal. These trees fit one of several criterion: dead or dying, hazardous, or impinging on another, more valuable tree. (There are other criterion that did not come into play, such as diseased…

Fall Rain Ushers in Tree Planting Season

The start of the raining season in the Willamette Valley means that it’s time to start planting trees and shrubs. The cool, wet weather allows plants to get established before they face the stress of our hot and dry summers. The first trees to arrive for fall 2019 include ‘Golden Glory‘ Cornus mas, ‘Prairifire‘ crabapple,…

Keeping Up with the Conservancy

At little over a year ago, MSPC signed a memorandum of understanding with the City of Salem to help maintain the northwest corner of Bush’s Pasture Park (among other things). We’ve been busy since then. Here’s a short guide to what we’ve been up to: Landscape Bed Rehabilitation Project. The park’s northwest corner contains more…

Children’s Rock Scramble Proposal is Withdrawn

MSPC has withdrawn its proposal to install a small rock scramble in the Ravine area of Bush’s Pasture Park, immediately downhill from the Crooked House playground. In our meeting with the City to discuss the project, we learned that the City does not have a ‘nature play” policy that would permit the installation of non-standard…