It takes a lot of work to keep a rich diverse ecosystem on these floating wetlands. Our main task in the gardens will be to maintain balance, and stop any invasive or weedy-native plants from taking over and establishing a monoculture.
Saturday July 11th - 1:00 to 2:00 - Intro to weeding and walking on the Wild Mile gardens. This is a great time to come by if you haven't gardened with Urban Rivers yet. You'll learn the main plants, and you can stick around for as long as you'd like after and use what you learned.
Saturday July 11th - 2:00 to 5:00 - Garden Maintenance - Weeding and trimming/transplanting Juncus rushes.
Saturday July 11th - 2:00 to 5:00 - Garden Maintenance - Weeding and trimming/transplanting Juncus rushes.
Most Thursdays - 4:30 to 7:30 PM - A reoccurring time for evening gardening at the Wild Mile. Staff may or may not be available for guidance, so if you have never walked on the gardens before, you can stick to the edges of the gardens and work from the walkways. If you do go out on the gardens, wear a life vest and radio, and move slowly so you don't put your foot through a hole or squish a young non-weed plant. Feel free to only come for part if you can't stay for the whole thing. Note that this will overlap with the Thursday workshop series, so be mindful not to disturb the workshops, maybe by only gardening farther north on the Wild Mile while they are going on.
Many Saturdays - 10:30 to 1:30 - This will be a somewhat regular Wild Mile shift, unless there is an event that needs the full Wild Mile. Note that it overlaps with the other Wild Mile volunteer maintenance work, so just like Thursdays staff may not be available the entire time for guidance, but once you are confident you know what Jewelweed is, you'll be fine.
* Feel free to come by for part of a shift if you can't be there the whole time
* No previous garden experience is required! Here is a quick reference weeding guide, with our most common weeds and some of the lookalikes they are often mistaken for. There are a few tweaks we'll need to make before we print and laminate copies, but it's already a good primer.
* Dress in clothes you don't mind getting dirty, and it's a good idea to bring your own water bottle, but otherwise we should provide any necessary tools, including rubber boots if you'd like to keep your shoes dry. Most volunteers pull weeds without gloves, but if you prefer to use them, clean ones are sometimes in short supply and bringing your own pair is helpful.
* Please move slowly on the gardens. There are occasionally small gaps in the structure of the gardens you can get your foot through. We'll try to let you know where those are, but the muskrats could always tear a new one no one knows about. If you haven't already had a talk on how to move around the gardens safely from someone on staff, please ask for that. And please, always where a lifejacket when on the gardens.
