August 25, 2021
Hello UUCville Members,
We hope that everyone is enjoying the outdoor projects and repairs that the Gardens and Grounds Committee has worked hard to complete this year.
However, there are still many projects in progress and we need your help and consideration to ensure that these can continue with success. One current project involves the five garden areas near our entrance along Edgewood Lane. We have cleared those areas and are now trying to prevent the regrowth of the extremely invasive weeds and plants that have grown there for years. To do this, we have carefully placed cardboard pieces in a specific inter-locking pattern throughout these areas and covered them with mulch. This cardboard technique will block most light to prevent plant regrowth and will also hold water at soil level and biodegrade to enrich this soil for later planting.
It is critical to the success of this project that these areas of cardboard remain undisturbed. Please help us remind others (especially our youngest members) to not remove this cardboard, walk on it, or place heavy items on top of it. And please do not plant other pants here. These five areas need to remain unplanted and undisturbed for at least a year (Fall, 2022) or this area will become overgrown again quickly.
These areas present the first impression of our church so it is important that we are careful with them. Next year our committee will discuss what to do with this area to make it both beautifully inviting and easier to maintain. The Gardens and Grounds Committee will continue to prune the area and keep it as neat as possible in the meantime.
Additionally, Walter and I are extremely thankful for all our wonderful volunteers and committee members and to everyone else who has contributed ideas, labor, food, money and sweat to help the projects continue this year. Many of you (and us) have worked long, successive days in 100+ degrees. We are much further along than we thought we would be at this point. Thank you!
Feel free to contact us with questions and thank you again for helping us preserve our current project by not removing or disturbing the cardboard pieces on UUCville grounds.
John Nolen & Walter Hoffman
Gardens and Grounds Committee Co-Chairs