After an unsuccessful recruitment effort to fill the new Garden Manager position, the Board invited former MSPC president Michael Slater to step into the 1-day a week role. Michael led the organization from its founding in 2018 through early 2020. He has served on the Board continuously. Michael’s role will be to coordinate with City…
The park’s tree collection suffered some significant damage from the ice storm of February 13. While City staff focused on making the upper and lower oak groves safe and accessible, a team from MSPC surveyed the damage to historical flowering tree collection in the Orchard. We identified 25 trees that had suffered some sort of…
Mission Street Parks Conservancy wants to contract with a Garden Manager who will support and lead our regular Tuesday Gardeners volunteer group, among other duties. The ideal contractor will have experience and/or education in horticulture and garden design, will oversee Tuesday’s volunteer gardeners in Bush’s Pasture Park, and will organize plant sales. We think about…
The focal point of the Tarter Old Rose Collection is a mortared brick circle with roses planted around a sundial pad in the center. Over the years, the brickwork has deteriorated and needs to be restored and stabilized so that it will last. MSPC, working in concert with the City of Salem, has found a…
The focal point of the Tarter Old Rose Collection is a mortared brick circle with roses planted around a sundial pad in the center. Over the years, the brickwork has deteriorated and needs to be restored and stabilized so that it will last. MSPC, working in concert with the City of Salem, has found a…
The City of Salem began with ambitious plans to engage the public in development of a Cultural Landscape Management Plan for Bush, Deepwood, and Yew Parks. Then COVID-19 intervened. Meetings were out; Zoom is in! The City and its consultants shifted to virtual meetings and an on-line survey to solicit public comment. The Mission Street…
Tuesday Gardener Anne Teeling – better known as Anya or Annie – moved to Salem in 2009 from Illinois. Anya grew up in Chicago and its suburbs. She worked as a member of the horticulture and landscape maintenance crew at the world-famous Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, near Chicago. https://www.mortonarb.org/ After retiring from The Morton…
Park visitors have probably noticed some changes in the oak grove in the southwest corner of Bush’s Pasture Park over the past year. More leaves have been allowed to remain on the ground in the fall and, now, many oaks are surrounded by larger and more deeply-mulched “tree circles.” What’s going on? Under the leadership…
Do trees talk? Trees do not seem to “talk” as we know it, by sending specific sound waves into the air. But scientists are convinced that trees communicate through a system of underground connections that rely upon fungi. Scientists say that these connections can influence how trees grow and whether they defend themselves from disease.…
What a crazy year! Now I know 2020 is not over yet, but for me, I began my first year as Volunteer Coordinator for Mission Streets Parks Conservancy (MSPC) in September 2019. And here it is September 2020. When I joined the Tuesday Gardeners in June of 2019, I didn’t realize that by September, Michael…