American Elm Park Receives Award

Kathy Michels, in recognition of her efforts and the efforts of many others, received a certificate of Excellence at the October 19 KMCB Award Ceremony at the Rockville Executive Office Building.  While the garden is certainly beautiful, that is only part of what makes the Park a Wheaton Green Gem. 

First some background: Last August marked the seventh anniversary of the dedication ceremony for American Elm Park, an ambitious citizen-built rain garden and conservation landscape project in the neighborhood west of upper Sligo Creek Park.

It was in 2004 that a group of neighbors in Wheaton converted an abandoned slice of land along Ladd Street into a beautiful landscape of mostly native plants that provides year-round beauty while also slowing down stormwater runoff, allowing it to enter Sligo Creek more gradually and naturally.

The neighborhood’s developers had long ago stripped the site of its trees, undergrowth, and topsoil before the road planned for it was built elsewhere. The sticky clay and construction debris left behind aggravated the stormwater erosion already taking place. 

From 2000 to 2002, resident Kathy Michels and some neighbors made their first attempt at a garden, planting more than 30 trees and shrubs at the site. Sadly, the garden was vandalized in summer of 2002 and nearly all the plants were destroyed.

Undaunted, the neighbors replanted the entire site the following spring. They replanted native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, using grant money from Montgomery County, native plants donated by Chesapeake Natives Nursery, support from the Izaak Walton League, the Department of Environmental Protection and assistance of the civic associations of Sligo Headwaters and Upper Sligo. The resulting park included a rain garden.

Seven years later, the park endures. The rain garden filters and absorbs stormwater before it drains to Sligo Creek. The small parcel is now covered with daffodils (non-native but non-invasive plant for early spring color), native perennials (such as mistflowers and black-eyed Susan) and native shrubs and trees, including young oaks, sycamore, sweet gum, and birch. Neighbors have to put down mulch to maintain a walking path.

Gone, however, are the four disease-resistant Valley Forge American elms planted in 2003. They all fell down or split. In fall 2010, the neighbors planted two disease-resistant Princeton American elms, and a third is being considered. The Princeton elms have a more attractive vase shape, like the original American elms, than the Valley Forge variety.

Homeowners throughout the Sligo Creek watershed can do in their own yards what these volunteers have accomplished in their neighborhood. Even a small garden can provide beautiful succession of blossoms, foliage, and even bark that change throughout the four seasons, while also helping revive Sligo Creek Park.

To see photos over the years and captions of American Elm Park over the years, visit http://www.fosc.org/AL-AmericanElmPark.htm.