Measuring the Good – Urban EcoStewards

Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, Anna Johnson never thought of herself as a “city” girl, but upon arriving in Pittsburgh she was surprised to find a city so carefully built into its environment. “I love how hills or rivers frame almost every view of the city,” she says. “In some urban landscapes, you can forget that there is a nature that is not human nature, but that is not the case in Pittsburgh.”

Anna Johnson surveying in Riverview Park

After calling Pittsburgh home for several years, Johnson moved to Baltimore to earn her Ph.D. at the University of Maryland. “I am an urban ecologist now because of my admiration for the ecology of Pittsburgh, and my desire to find ways to better integrate our understanding of human uses and values with the natural processes that drive the diversity and distribution of plant and animal populations,” she says.

When her graduate program offered her funding for research in 2010, Johnson reached out to Dr. Daniel Bain at the University of Pittsburgh, and Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy Senior Restoration Ecologist, Erin Copeland to help her design a study in her favorite urban landscape. She chose to focus on the Urban EcoSteward (UES) program to measure the change that is possible when we engage in the ecological well being of our parks.   

Urban EcoSteward Program

Urban EcoStewards are members of the Pittsburgh community who volunteer to be responsible for the ecological restoration and care of a quarter acre site in one of the parks. Each EcoSteward is assigned a site coordinator who visits the site with them at least once per year and helps establish a timeline of priorities. For example, the removal of trash on a site is always priority number one in order to promote healthy soil. The removal of invasive species needs to be done before native vegetation can be planted to avoid the young plants having to compete for resources, etc.

While EcoStewards do have to be self-motivated to work on their sites, we don’t send them out into the woods without direction. Every year the program offers a series of trainings that will teach you how to do everything from safely remove trash, to identify invasive plants, or control the erosion of hillsides. These trainings are free and open to the public and you don’t have to be an EcoSteward to attend.  

The Urban EcoSteward Program is a partnership between the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, the Frick Environmental Center, the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association, the Mount Washington Community Development Corporation, Allegheny Cleanways, and the Allegheny Land Trust. In 2011 Urban EcoStewards donated over 800 hours of service to our city’s parks.  

A Study of Stewardship

In the summer of 2010, Johnson set out into Pittsburgh’s parks to find a way to assess the ecological effectiveness of the Urban Ecosteward Program. “I wanted to know if managed plots, over time, were measurably different than unmanaged plots, in terms of herbaceous plant species abundance and composition,” she says. Her study sought to answer two basic questions…

1. Does Urban EcoSteward management decrease the number of invasive plant species in EcoSteward plots?
2. Does Urban EcoSteward management increase the number of native, or non-invasive, plant species?
   

   Invasive Garlic Mustard

Invasive species are plants or animals, either native or introduced, that outcompete and displace other desirable species.  A species may become invasive if it faces less pressure from disease or predation, has a particularly aggressive reproduction strategy, or thrives in areas where human disturbance has occurred.  Invasive plants can quickly take over an area, edging out the non-invasive plants that provide critical habitat, biodiversity and beauty in our parks.

Johnson utilized two methods to accumulate the needed data. First, she took data from the hundreds of monitoring forms that EcoStewards fill out periodically to track the progress of their site. Second, she visited a sampling of forested EcoSteward sites which represented a range of management (from 0-5 years) and surveyed plant communities. The data collected represented EcoSteward sites in Highland, Frick, Schneley, and Riverview parks.

The story being told by the UES monitoring forms was clear. “I found that managing a plot for at least two years results in a statistically significant reduction in the number of invasive plant species,” says Johnson. Her own sampling of sites confirmed this finding. “I found a trend of increasing abundance of non-invasive species and decreasing abundance of invasive species, as the duration of EcoSteward management increased.”

From an ecological perspective the Urban EcoStewards are making a difference in our parks. “It is not often that we have such a well-documented example of the positive effects people can have on their environment,” says Johnson. As the EcoStewards continue their work and collect data she is eager to see the patterns that develop. “We don’t really know what our parks, or any urban parks, will look like twenty, fifty, or one hundred years from now,” she says, “but by documenting the work that our EcoStewards do, we are developing an extremely valuable record of the results of long-term ecological stewardship.”

 
If you have questions about Anna Johnson’s research you can contact her at annaj1@umbc.edu or leave questions in the comments and we’ll forward them along to her. Learn more about how to become an Urban EcoSteward here, or join us for one of our UES training sessions. Digging in the dirt not for you? Consider making a donation to benefit our parks.

Mellon Square Update – History on the Move

The basins in the Mellon Square fountain in summer

When the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy took on the restoration of Mellon Square in downtown Pittsburgh we knew it would require some heavy lifting. This phrase took on new meaning January 19^th when a forklift was brought in to remove the nine bronze basins that serve as the focal point of the Square’s once stunning central fountain. The task at hand that brisk morning was to free the basins from their concrete pedestals and load them onto truck beds. The basins would then take a short trip through the Liberty Tubes and arrive into the capable hands of Matthews International, where they were originally cast in the early 1950s.

Weighing in at approximately 3,500 lbs each, the nine basins of the Mellon Square fountain are reportedly the largest single bronze basins ever cast. Typically a casting of that size would be done in pieces and then assembled, but these were made in one solid piece. Yet another accolade for Mellon Square – the country’s first modern garden plaza built over a parking garage.

construction photos by Rebecca Chiappelli

While at Matthews International, the basins will be refurbished. The dark green layer that covers the bronze will be removed and the patina restored to a golden brown color. “We’re letting the restoration of this historic bronze drive the restoration of the whole fountain in terms of color choice,” says Parks Conservancy Park Maintenance and Management Director, Phil Gruszka. The color will be tested directly on one of the basins instead of on a separate sample of bronze since the alloys in this historic metal will create unique variants in color. Once the brown tone of the basins is established, the pale green shade for the fountain itself will be selected.

Lighting was originally part of the fountain’s design, but was done away with in 1987.  We are thrilled that the lighting will be put back into place as part of our historic restoration in order to highlight these magnificent bronze pieces. “They will be lit again,” says Parks Curator Susan Rademacher, “and this will help redefine the image of the park as a wonderful place to be at night.”

The process of restoring these sixty-year-old basins will take time. While they are away we can get to work restoring the fountain itself. The basins are expected to make the trip home to Mellon Square once again in late fall of 2012, where they will be perched back atop their concrete pedestals in a fully restored Mellon Square fountain.       

Learn more about Mellon Square and our restoration project here. View our flickr page of historic images of the casting of the basins. Help us bring Mellon Square back to life by making a donation to this important project for downtown Pittsburgh. Keep up with our progress on the Mellon Square facebook page. 

 

Mary Schenley and the Making of Our Park System

By Susan M. Rademacher, Parks Curator, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy
Originally published in Squirrel Hill Magazine, Winter 2011 

Only two of our city’s four historic regional parks bear a family name.  Frick Park is named in tribute to Henry Clay Frick who, upon his death in 1919, gave 150 acres and an endowment to develop and care for a new park.  Frick Park is also a symbol of a father’s Iove for his daughter — Frick’s daughter Helen is reputed to have asked her father for the park property as a gift to the children of Pittsburgh.  This story is perhaps the better known of the two family-named parks, because the Frick home and museums at Clayton remain to embody the family’s presence and impact on Pittsburgh. 

Mary E. Schenley

Schenley Park, on the other hand, wouldn’t exist today if it weren’t for the forgiveness of a father in restoring his estranged daughter to her inheritance.   In what became the scandal of the day, Mary Elizabeth Croghan eloped at age 15 from her Long island boarding school with the headmistress’s 43-year-old brother-in-law, Captain Edward Schenley.  The newlyweds settled in London and Mary was promptly disinherited.  Her father, William Croghan Jr., couldn’t bear the break for long, visiting the young couple and the first of many grandchildren in London a year later in 1843.  His forgiveness is especially understandable, given that Mary was the widower’s only surviving child. 

William Croghan Jr., father of Mary Schenley

Croghan was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, at the fabled country seat Locust Grove.  His father was the Revolutionary War Quartermaster General William Croghan, married to the sister of General George Rogers Clark.    After the steamboat allowed passage upriver, Pittsburgh became a favored destination of Louisvillians.  It was on such an outing that William Croghan Jr. met the prosperous O’Hara family, marrying daughter Mary O’Hara in 1821. The couple started their family in Louisville with son William and daughter Mary Elizabeth born at Locust Grove on April 27, 1826.  That same year, William Croghan Jr. wrote his brother-in-law, “I am sick & tired of farming, incessant toil and anxiety & no profit….I am now firmly resolved so soon as my difficulties will allow to make arrangements for moving to Pittsburgh.”  Sadly, he would make that move as a widower, his wife Mary having died 1827.  In an 1828 letter from William’s sister Ann Croghan Jesup to her sister Eliza Croghan Hancock, Ann writes “Mr. Baldwin in Pittsburgh says Will Croghan is the finest boy he ever saw & Mary is a lovely child it did me good to hear him speak of those poor little children. Mary has quite recovered I sat up with her for two nights she was dangerously ill with Quinsy and inflammation on the Lungs.”  Young Will died only a month later. 

Picnic House

Father and daughter Mary Elizabeth soon moved to Pittsburgh to make a new life.  There, William Croghan Jr. was admitted to the Allegheny Bar.  And in August of 1833, Mary writes to her Aunty Lucy Jesup, “Next year Papa is to build his cottage.”  This fine Greek Revival-style home atop Stanton Heights was named Picnic House, and contained 22 rooms.  Croghan died at Picnic in 1850, but his will preserved the home and furnishings for the use of Mary and her children until 1931, when Mary’s daughter Hermione, Lady Ellenborough, sold the furnishings.  The house was demolished in 1955, and its grand ballroom and foyer were transplanted to the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning where they remain a major attraction.

Mary’s inheritance of O’Hara properties from her mother’s estate made her the largest property owner in Allegheny County.  Her Pittsburgh landholdings included slums at the “Point” and she was severely criticized as an absentee landlord and exploiter of the wretched by Pittsburgh’s Labor Tribune and the Chicago Daily Tribune in the late 1880s.  Her redemption came in philanthropic form.  Significant gifts to several important institutions helped shape the cultural, social, and physical landscape of Pittsburgh as we know it today.

Among her major gifts were:

• Land for building the West Penn Hospital;
• Property for the Western Penn Institute for the Blind;
• A large lot for the Newsboys Home;
• A $10,000 subscription toward the purchase of land for Riverview Park; and
• The gift of the Old Block House and adjoining property, (the original Fort Duquesne) to the Daughters of the American Revolution. 

While the City of Pittsburgh had been attempting to buy or take Schenley properties for an Oakland park since 1869, it wasn’t until 1889, after Captain Schenley died, that the land for Schenley Park was finally acquired.  It was through the enterprising efforts of the “Father of Pittsburgh Parks,” Edward Manning Bigelow (1850-1916), that Mary was persuaded to donate 300 acres, giving an option to buy another 100 acres.  Bigelow, named the first director of the new Department of Public Works, envisioned a park system for the city.  When he heard that a developer was heading to London to broker a deal with Mrs. Schenley, he promptly dispatched an attorney to get there first and secure a donation.   Mary had just two conditions: that the land be used for a park named after her and that it could never be sold.  The City soon purchased an additional 144 acres, including the present-day Schenley Plaza and part of the Carnegie Library for much less than its tax value.

Schenley's gift is memorialized in the Mary E. Schenley Memorial Fountain at Schenley Plaza.

Her invaluable gift is memorialized in the Mary E. Schenley Memorial Fountain at Schenley Plaza. 

Sculpted by Victor David Brenner, with the granite base by architect H. Van Magonigle, the memorial was entitled A Song to Nature and dedicated on Labor Day, September 2, 1918.   The memorial was restored and lit in 2008 by the City of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy.

When she died in 1903, the New York Times observed, “The death of Mrs. Mary E. Schenley, which occurred at her home in Hyde Park, London, was made known in Pittsburg [sic] to-day.  Mrs. Schenley has been Pittsburg’s benefactress for many years….Mrs. Schenley was the heroine, sixty years ago, of the greatest romance in Pittsburg’s early history….The affair created an immense social sensation at the time, and the house was preserved for many years in precisely the shape that it was in at the date of the elopement.”

Mary returned only once to Pittsburgh before her father’s death in 1850, and rarely after that.  As an asthmatic, the smoky city was not a healthy environment for her.  How fitting that our park system was created, in part, to improve the health of our people while changing the image of the city from gray to green.  Schenley Park, along with all the parks and greenspaces of Pittsburgh, has more than fulfilled that early promise, thanks in no small part to the spirited benefactress Mary E. Schenley.

Sources:
A century and a half of Pittsburg and her people, by John Newton Boucher; illustrated. Vol. 2.
Frick Fine Arts Library: Schenley Plaza, Schenley Park &Environs, Library Guide Series, No. 11.
Grove Gazette, Winter 2011.   Historic Locust Grove, Louisville, Kentucky.
“Fountain of Forgetting: Mary E. Schenley (1827-1903),” by Don Simpson, University of Pittsburgh.
Mandy Dick, “The Storyteller,” Clarksville, Indiana, 502-500-8899.
The New York Times, November 6, 1903.
The History of Pittsburgh: Its Rise and Progress, by Sarah Hutchins Killikelly.  B. C. & Gordon Montgomery Co., 1906: Pittsburgh, PA.

 

As Parks Curator, Ms. Rademacher preserves and promotes the cultural significance of the Pittsburgh parks.  Contact her at (412) 682-7275.

Prune Young Trees in Winter

Bryan Dolney and Angela Masters pruning trees in Mellon Park

It may seem odd to see Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy staff and City DPW crews out in the bitter wind of January, but the winter months are actually the ideal time to give your trees a little attention. In fact, winter pruning ties into our Tree Action Plan as an effective way we can manage the current threats to our urban forest. “In winter the fresh cuts have time to dry out,” says Angela Masters, Parks Conservancy horticulturalist. “When the insects and diseases become active in spring the wood isn’t susceptible to colonization.”

Pruning young trees on your property is beneficial in a variety of ways. Proper pruning helps the tree send its resources to the good strong branches, so that it grows stronger and is less of a liability during a storm or bearing the weight of heavy snow. In addition, “A well maintained tree will serve the community best through storm water management, carbon capture, erosion control, and shade,” says Parks Conservancy Field Ecologist Bryan Dolney.

A branch diseased with fungal spores

Before you pick up the limb loppers, make sure the timing is right. A homeowner should feel comfortable doing developmental pruning, which means that the tree is more than one year old, no more than 20 feet in height, and 3-5 inches in diameter. “Don’t prune your tree in the year immediately following its planting,” advises Phil Gruszka, certified Arborist, and Parks Maintenance and Management Director for the Parks Conservancy,” unless it has one of the four D’s.” Limbs that are dead, dying, diseased, or damaged. This first year is when the tree’s root system is reestablishing itself and unnecessary pruning will disrupt its growth. Equally important is not attempting to prune a tree that is too large because it can become dangerous and should be left to professionals.

While it may be tempting to prune your tree into a pretty sphere, the primary purpose of pruning should be done with the tree’s structure as the paramount concern. Angela also warns to resist the impulse to “limb the tree up,” or cut away at lower branches while neglecting the higher ones. “Try not to remove more than 25 percent of the tree’s live branches while pruning,” she adds. When you’re decided which limbs will stay and which will go, keep your eye out for these primary issues…

Codominant stems with "included crotch"

Codominant stems. Codominance is when two or more stems are competing to become the dominant leader. Codominant stems grow parallel from one another and form a ‘U’ or ‘V’ shaped crotch. 

‘U’ shaped crotches are strong, there are wood cells growing in the bottom of the ‘U’ which connect the limb to the trunk, keep these whenever possible.

‘V’ shaped crotches are not strong because there are no wood cells growing at the point of attachment. ‘V’ type crotches frequently capture outer bark as the tree grows.  This bark, called an “included crotch” becomes included in the growth, preventing wood cells from connecting the limb to the trunk.   If a tree continues to grow in this manner it will eventually split, potentially causing serious damage on your property.

Damage from rubbing branches

Rubbing branches. Think of the way a bow rubs against the strings of a violin. Like water to a stone, the branches rubbing against each other over time will cause damage and eventually, fallen limbs.   

Dead branches. It’s pretty simple, dead branches can fall causing damage to both your property and other branches. They can also potentially be diseased and damage the health of your tree.

Deformed branches. If it doesn’t look right, it probably isn’t.

Angela removing suckers

Suckers. Also called water sprouts, suckers are small limbs that grow vertically in patches either off of a branch or out of the ground surrounding the base of a tree. They are aptly named as their primary dysfunction is that they suck resources away from larger, more vital limbs on the tree. Suckers on your tree are an indication of poor health (often because of improper depth when planted) so you should consider having an arborist take a look at it.

Cut one of the codominant branches as close to the point of the "V" as possible

Now that you know what to prune, how to prune it? “Cut a branch where there is a new shoot or a new branch coming out,” advises Angela. A tree is not a bush, instead of hedging the whole outside of the tree, make decisive reducing cuts to the branches. In the case of a codominant or V shaped stem, select the healthier looking branch to become the new dominant stem and cut the other as close to the point of the V shape as possible.

Ultimately proper care of trees on your property is a benefit to both yourself and the community. Proper pruning at the right time will help slow the spread of disease and insects in Pittsburgh’s urban forest where we currently stand to lose more than 60% of our urban tree population to threats like the Emerald Ash Borer and Oak Wilt disease. Healthy trees also ensure that we receive their maximum benefit to the environment. Finally, taking care of your trees in the first three years of their life will save you expense resulting from property damage and arborist expenses for years to come.  

Want to learn more about how to care for your trees? Join our friends at Tree Pittsburgh and become a tree tender. Also check out the Shade Tree Comission and TreeVitalize.

Ask us your tree questions @pittsburghparks on twitter or on facebook. To help save our urban forest, consider making a donation to our Emergency Tree Fund.

ADA Accessibility Standards Now Include Parks

At the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, we believe that public parks are our city’s most democratic spaces because they are free to all of its citizens. We also know that this is only true if these wonderfully free green spaces are accessible to everyone as well.  With some help from the Pittsburgh Community, we’ve been uncovering and studying the challenges that some people face when visiting our parks.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) passed in 1990 and was a huge step toward addressing the needs of disabled persons in this country. In the 20 years since the Act passed, many questions and issues arose, and in 2010 the Department of Justice revised the requirements and created the 2010 Standards for Accessible Design (2010 Standards).

The 2010 Standards represent a bit of a landmark in our field of parks restoration since it is the first time that we have formal accessibility standards for recreation facilities such as playgrounds, pools, and amusement rides. We welcome this expansion of standards here at the Conservancy as it will allow us to improve the accessibility of our park projects.

Susan Rademacher, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy Parks Curator at a meeting of the accessibility advisory group in 2011

The March 15, 2012 implementation deadline will enforce the 2010 Standards to all new construction as well as to alterations or additions to existing facilities. The Department of Justice does not mandate that all existing facilities meet these standards by this deadline; however, readily achievable changes should be made and a plan should be put in place to accomplish accessibility.

The goal of accessibility for everyone is complex. “Everything has to be looked at through multiple lenses,” says Susan Rademacher, Parks Curator for the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy. While it seems obvious that a goal in the design of a new playground is to allow a disabled child to play easily with other children, less obvious is the fact that a disabled parent also would need to be able to reach her child (disabled or not) in case she falls or gets hurt.

Removing barriers to accommodate wheelchairs can be problematic for a person who is visually impaired and needs signals that they can detect in a cane sweep. A good example of this would be a drinking fountain which juts directly out of a wall with nothing around it – a visually impaired person may not know it’s coming since his or her cane would pass below the fountain as if nothing were there, but a person using a wheelchair would appreciate the ease with which they could get a drink.    

Other improvements can be as simple as installing insulation around hot water pipes under sinks so that they won’t burn the legs of a wheelchair user, or making sure that trash cans aren’t left to block the path of travel by maintenance crews.  

We are passionate about everyone’s right to public parks. We are actively teaming up with experts in the accessibility field help us meet, and where possible, exceed, these new standards in future projects, as well as focusing on ways to improve current obstacles to the universal use of our parks. Our awareness has been heightened by this process and we will bring a more informed accessibility lens to all of our future work. We welcome discussion on this important issue and are actively seeking advice from park goers about what would make their parks better. For more information, contact Susan Rademacher, Parks Curator, at srademacher@pittsburghparks.org.

 

Learn more about the American Disabilities Act on their website. View the 2010 Standards for Accessible Design here, or call the toll free ADA information line: 1 800 514 0301 (voice) 1 800 514 0383 (TTY) 

Pittsburgh to Host the Garden Writers Association in 2014

Pittsburgh will have an unprecedented opportunity to show off its green self when the Garden Writers Association (GWA) descends on our fair city for its annual symposium in 2014.

Schenley Plaza Garden in Summer

I was first made aware of this national group in 2007 while working as the director of marketing at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. The GWA is comprised of garden professionals including book authors, staff editors, syndicated columnists, free-lance writers, photographers, landscape designers, television and radio personalities, consultants, catalog publishers, and others interested in advancing communications about horticulture, gardening and the environment.

The annual gathering was in Oklahoma City in 2007 and I attended with Jessica Romano, Phipps’ marketing communications coordinator (and now the Parks Conservancy’s marketing manager). Since 2007 the Symposium has been held in Portland, Raleigh, Dallas, and Indianapolis, putting Pittsburgh in good company.

A typical GWA symposium lasts three full days, but is bookended with story tours, special interest seminars, and photography junkets.  When the Pittsburgh-based GWA members first met about the opportunity to host the symposium, the concern was coming up with enough locations and activities to keep 500-600 garden professionals engaged.  After a couple meetings, it became clear to us that our real problem would be narrowing the options, so the application proceeded with a positive outcome.

Panther Hollow Lake

Not only will the GWA Symposium benefit Pittsburgh economically as all national conventions do, but the long-term positive impact of hosting hundreds of professional communicators and showing off our City’s love and appreciation of horticulture and the environment is immeasurable.

For our part, the Parks Conservancy is looking forward to showing off the fragile diversity of the Panther Hollow Watershed, the popularity of Schenley Plaza, a restored Mellon Square, a rebuilt Environmental Education Center, and other park features that make Pittsburgh unique, green, and a fantastic place to live and work.

Michael Sexauer is Director of Advancement for the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy

Wintertime Planters Display Holiday Cheer

Planters serve as eye catching horticultural art displays most of the year, but during the winter months they are often left empty and sad. Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy gardener Angela Masters got tired of looking at vacant, dirt filled pots until spring, so she has created beautiful winter planter displays at Schenley Plaza and the Schenley Park Café and Visitor’s Center. Her designs are easy to emulate and require little maintenance for upkeep. Next time the family’s in town for the holidays you can show off your green thumb, even with snow on the ground.

Three tier groupings of plants create a full look.

When designing a planter (no matter what the season) Angela likes to use a three tier grouping. For the center of the planter she uses a tall, upright plant. Around this focal point she will put in a shorter upright plant, and along the outside of the planter she ideally likes to put in something that will hang over the edges.

The planters she has created at the Visitor’s Center are a perfect demonstration of this ideal grouping. The Red Twig Dogwood she has placed at the center of the planter creates the highest point of the design, as well as adding some holiday color to the display. Around that she has placed White Pine seedlings (with the fluffy looking needles) and Hemlock seedlings (yellowish in color), at the outside edge a Christmas Fern spills over the planter making the display look full and lush.

Blue Princess Holly surrounded by Bearberry

At Schenley Plaza, her planters display two plants, with a focus on the beautiful Blue Princess Holly in the center complete with bright red berries. Surrounding the Holly she has put in a groundcover called Bearberry.

These wintertime planters do more than just look good, they incorperate evergreens for us to put into the parks! Angela has deliberately chosen plants (with the exception of the Blue Princess Holly) that are native to our area so that when it comes time to change the planters to spring flowers, these seedlings can be transplanted to the natural wooded areas. “Using natives is a challenge because there are so many beautiful evergreens that I’d like to use, but we don’t want to be putting invasive plants into the parks,” says Angela.

Wintertime planters in front of The Porch Restaurant in Schenley Plaza

Maintenance of wintertime planters is easy breezy since you are using plants accustomed to the cold weather. “As long as the planter is in a place where it gets rained and snowed on, it will be fine,” says Angela. “If the planter is under an eve of your house or some other covering you may need to water it a little once in a while.” She does add that having the planter closer to a building (while not necessarily covered) will give it a better chance of survival by protecting it from harsh elements like cold wind.  

Your imagination is the limit when it comes to the design of a wintertime planter. You can decorate the planters a multitude of ways. Angela recommends looking for some dried materials like lotus pods and artichokes to add texture and color. You can find such things at craft stores and they can be spray painted in metallic shades to add a little bling to the display. If you really want to spruce them up for the holidays try adding some ribbon.

There are a multitude of evergreen plants that will work beautifully but a few of Angela’s favorites are various kinds of Junipers (there are varieties that stand upright and some that drape), Gold Thread Cypress, Dwarf Alberta Spruce, and the native Winterberry Holly.         

 

Kathleen Gaines is a Development Associate for the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy