Thank you WSSC. In December 2023, the Westbrook Elementary School meadow was destroyed by a water main break. Today, planting was completed by WSSC to restore the native plant meadow.
New plants include shrubs and perennial flowers, 258 in total. Look for New England aster and blue mist flower in fall and Baptisia, golden Alexander and eastern blue star next spring. And hopefully, the summer perennials - purple coneflower, joe-pye, and woodland sunflowers will bloom this year. The plant list is HERE. Thank you to John Drake for his work on developing the plant list.
Project start in 2010
The Westbrook Elementary School project was the first restoration project installed by LFWA. It was the brain child of Lynnwood Andrews who wanted to return wildflowers to the area. She was rightfully worried that many school children had never seen a native flower in the wild because of the problem with non-native invasives. After clearing the area of vines, multi-flora rose, bush honey suckle and other non-native invasives, she organized students at the school to grown oaks from acorns and to plant hundreds of native perennials and shrubs in the 1/4 acre plot. Materials were donated by local businesses and students earned SSL hours planting and weeding. Lynnwood moved out of the area in 2015, and residents have maintained the area with periodic work days spent weeding and mowing.
Visit HERE to learn more about Lynnwood’s vision and the work that was done to create the meadow.
