After a few months of growth, we judged that the experiment had been a success. People on the street were commenting on how pretty the garden was, and that their children enjoyed seeing all the birds and insects it attracted.
So now was the time to expand. Remember that giant colony of burdock and mug-wart growing behind the site, it had to go. So we promoted a site clearing event to take place on September 21st, with the ultimate goal of extending the wildflowers into it.
On the Thursday before that, John and Alex from Van Cortlandt Park Alliance, and Lambert attacked the invaders with cordless hedge trimmers and rakes, effecting a rough clearing of the site. We might lose small children in it otherwise.
The following Saturday the weather was nice, and we were very happy to see we had a modest turnout out volunteers, all new to the project.
They made short work of a marvelous clearing job. The large majority of the weeds were dug out of the site, and there should be a lot less competition for flowers to get into next year.