Native Planting x City of Forest Day 2024
On October 26, 2024, a group of Hell’s Kitchen residents and friends came together at Ramon Aponte Playground to support City of Forest Day and installed over 70 native shrubs and perennial plantings in the park. This project is part of an on-going effort by Hell’s Kitchen Conservation Corps, whose goal is to replenish the understory planting with native species, to create bird habitat and to provide outdoor learning opportunities for the school community in midtown west.
Image: Delivery of native plant materials at Ramon Aponte Playground. Source: HKCC.
The day started with excitement when a truckload of native plants showed up outside the gates at Ramon Aponte Playground. Plants were stored by size, with the large shrubs and tall grasses towards the back of the truck and smaller perennials and ground covers towards the front. With the help of NYC Parks staff, we unloaded the precious cargo and brought them into the park.
Image: Plant staging for delivery confirmation. Source: HKCC.
We’re blessed that there is a generous seating area right by the drinking fountain where we could sort and organize the delivered materials into groups. We confirmed the plant count and identified missing / excess plants, as well as the gardening tools requested for the project. Once we finished confirming the delivery, the NYC Parks staff went on to the next delivery and we started to review our game plan with volunteers.
Image: We reviewed the plan and goal for the event. Source: HKCC.
Just like any volunteering event, you never know how many people would actually show up. We had a plan, but we had to adapt when more volunteers showed up than we had originally anticipated. We decided to start staging the plants and move them closer to their final location. One by one, volunteers picked up the pots and brought them to 4 different planting areas.
Image: One by one, volunteers brought the plants near the plant bed for layout mockup.
To effectively manage 18 volunteers in 4 separate planting areas within the park, plans were sketched up prior to the event. Some planting beds required weeding, and others required soil amendments. We went over the task lists with each group and made sure people knew what the assignments were. It was important to follow the sequence of tasks to prepare the plant beds before installing new plants.
Image: Hand sketch of planting layout and tasks. Source: HKCC.
Another step we did was to layout the pots in the plant beds prior to digging. This allowed us to check the layout and make final tweaks depending on field conditions. We ended up swapping a few plants due to micro-climate. Once everything is confirmed, volunteers started digging!
Image: Volunteers installed plants in their final location. Source: HKCC.
After 2 hours of digging and planting, everyone was tired and ready to go home. Before we left for the day, we did a round of deep watering. The extra long hose helped us reach all the new plant beds in the park from the one and only working water source. Some of us stayed a little longer for general park clean up. In the end, everyone had fun and we were happy to have done something great for the community and the environment.
City of Forest Day 2024 officially in the books! Woohoo!
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to reach out using our contact link, or DM us on Instagram.
Image: End of the day. Pots are empty. Source: HKCC.