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Clearing away these unwanted, invasive vines so native sweet fern vine  can thrive. . .

Beautifying John Zon Community Center & Saving Shrubs!

Greening Greenfield is working with Ardi Klein and Genevieve Lawler, of Regenerative Design Group, to beautify John Zon Community Center by saving the native shrubs that were planted in 2017. On the School street side of the building, we are adding birch trees and trying to save the sweet fern from invasive vines. On the north/back side of the building we are working to rejuvenate and diversity the dwarf red-stem dogwoods that have died back each winter and look unsightly! There is also a mugwort infestation in several areas.

This spring, we reached out to Regenerative Design Group to get advice on what we could do. Genevieve Lawler raised her hand and gave us a free consultation. She diagnosed the problems, offered advice and created a plan for us to rejuvenate the areas.

She felt that the dieback on the red-stem dogwoods was caused by the plants being planted too high! We ordered 5 yards of compo-mulch from Martins Farm and after trimming back the dead wood we are adding 1-2 inches of it everywhere. We will plan to plant new and different shrubs where the dogwoods have died, to diversity the landscape.

As for the native sweet fern on the School Street side of the building, it got smothered, pulled over and broken by three vines, two of which came from Europe. We all recognize that getting rid of the aggressive vines and rejuvenating the sweet fern will take several years, but we feel it is worth the effort!

Genevieve recommended that this summer we pull up all the vines and the mugwort, and then use a string-trimmer each week to cut the vines and mugwort to the ground, to starve the roots by keeping the plants from photosynthesizing. After pulling everything with Ardi, he is now string-trimming weekly.

In the fall we plan to have a sheet mulching party. Next summer we will watch the area and hand pull unwanted plants. Finally, in fall 2026 we plan to have a planting party to plant native ground covers as well as new shrubs to replace the sweet fern that died.

Recently we also planted several new birch trees in the sweet fern area that will offer shade to the Center’s east-facing exercise room, invite birds, and beautify the area. The Greenfield Tree Committee also planted some trees along School Street a few years ago.

Come take a look and please join us for our sheet-mulching and planting parties!

About the Troublesome plants:

• Broad-leafed Sweet Pea (Lathyrus latifolius) is a vine with a beautiful flower! Unfortunately, it is very aggressive. It is native to N. Africa and S. Europe.

• Bedstraw – (Galium aparine) is a native N. American vine belonging to the very large Galium genus with both annual and perennial species. It is very aggressive and hard to get rid of.

• Field Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) is a vine in the morning glory family. Unlike the ornamental morning glory it is a perennial from Europe, that grows aggressively and is very difficult to get rid of. Bindweed has an arrowhead-shaped leaf, while the morning glory we plant has a heart-shaped leaf.

Photo credit:  Mary Westervelt
Ardi Klein working with sweet fern and planting a birch tree