Green Way Meadow

The meadow at the end of Green Way has no official name, but it only exists in its present state because of the dedicated efforts of Fred Weber over the years. To call this place Fred's Field would give credit to the person who is its prime mover, though in his quiet unassuming way he would rather we simply call it the Green Way Meadow.

In 2004 three Hackberry trees were planted and two survived: the big one in the northeast corner and the small recovering one on the right as you enter from Green Way.

In April 2010 the area was overgrown with mugwort when Fred and Mike Limatola sprayed the new shoots and two months later in June they spread native late season grass seed: Switch Grass, Big Bluestem, Indian Grass, Little Bluestem and Wild Oats in that order of abundance. In the next few years the grasses did well and Fred planted Round-leaved Mountain Mint, Wild Bergamot and New York Ironweed. Common Milkweed, Daisy Fleabane, and a couple of other natives came up on their own with the Mugwort mostly gone.

in 2018 or thereabouts Fred planted two more Hackberry trees on the left as you enter from Green Way, over by the north edge so they won't block sun from the meadow, making a total of four trees today. Hackberry trees support the larvae of 5 species of butterflies: Hackberry Emperor, Tawny Emperor, Mourning Cloak, American Snout and Question Mark. The berries are eaten by many species of birds.

In the Fall of 2023 with help from a volunteer work crew Porcelain Berry plants were pulled and dug out. Then Fred seeded with Common Milkweed, Wild Bergamot, NY Ironweed and White Snakeroot, which are all deer resistant. Fred and Neil MacLennan also transplanted 20 clumps of Mountain Mint from the big patch on the southwest side of the path to get it established on the northeast side. As Fred notes, "That's a great pollinator and totally deer resistant."

Fred has seen 38 species of butterflies at the Celery Farm, mostly in this meadow. He also put up the two nest boxes, that are usually occupied by House Wrens or Tree Swallows beginning in mid April and continuing into early July. Hopefully, Bluebirds will nest there one day. Once the flowers go to seed you can expect to see Goldfinches feeding on the seedheads and of course there are many species attracted to this habitat during all seasons of the year.

You may also see many birds in the nearby Back Meadow at the south end of Phair's Pond, which Fred also maintains and where he put up three other bird nest boxes. There's a lot of Common and Swamp Milkweed there because it's wet. The Back Meadow is great for pollinators and nectar plants.

Now Fred sprays invasives with the white vinegar-epsom salts-a little dawn detergent mix mostly in Spring when they are just coming up. It is an ongoing effort to control invasives each year and encourage natives. The future will involve annual invasives spraying/pulling and helping natives spread.