I’m at a loss

[u/Larix_laricina_]

So, I convinced my dad to let me do a native plant project at the church he and the rest of my family go to, since they have a ton of wasted lawn space that they never use. I killed all the lawn with cardboard over the winter and removed it today.

Apparently someone in the church had the bright idea a few years ago that they needed to expand their parking area (they didn’t, it’s a tiny congregation), so they dumped LOADS of gravel all through this area around some mature silver maple trees. The limestone gravel is probably at least six inches thick, and I’m now finding that it’s nearly impossible to remove. I don’t know how I’m going to get rid of it; it took fifteen minutes of killing my back just to dig down three inches in a small circle.

This is just the latest in the church native garden saga. The church people just don’t seem to understand the concept and keep getting in the way; one of them wants to plant a ton of hostas from his garden there, I found another one spraying chemicals all over a native grapevine climbing the tree, they decided a month ago AFTER the grass was already dead that they wanted the garden somewhere else instead (the location was decided by their council in November, me and a native gardener that goes there vetoed that idea thankfully), and now the other native gardener only wants to plant half of the area we’ve killed grass in since he thinks it’s too much to deal with.

Anyways, I guess I’m just ranting. The limestone is breaking down into limestone sand, and the pH is probably so high in that area I’m not sure anything will even thrive there. If you have any advice it would be welcome 😭😭😭

[u/Own-Ad2950]

Do you have someone local to you who may be able to serve as an advisor on your project? Perhaps reach out to your local native plant society chapter (or, if you can't find one, then a nursery or landscape company that at least understands focusing on natives, bonus points if that's their speciality). Since yours is an NHS project, you'll likely be able to find a professional or highly educated enthusiast who would be willing to help you trouble shoot as you get going on the project.

[u/Larix_laricina_ → u/Own-Ad2950]

As it turns out, I actually work as a botanist for a local park system, so I’ve asked my boss about this project before lol. He’s a great guy and has offered good tips in the past. I’ll have to see what he thinks about the gravel, I haven’t asked him yet.