Roland Park Elementary School Teaching Gardens — ongoing
These native habitats were created to reduce storm runoff and teach students about the insects, animals, and plants that are specific to our region.
Switch grass in winter
American Elm
Native annual grass
Anaxyrus americanus (American toad)
Iris cristata with mosses and violets
Antennaria plantaginifolia (pussytoes)
Penstemon digitalis 'Husker Red' (beardtongue)
Amsonia tabernaemontana (eastern bluestar)
Mondarda bradburiana (eastern beebalm)
Chionanthus virginicus (white fringe tree)
Brood x cicada!
Spigelia marilandica (indian pink)
Amsonia hubrictii (bluestar) with Erigeron strigosus (daisy fleabane)
Ruellia humilis (wild geranium)
Phlox paniculata 'Jeana'
Asclepias syriaca (common milkweed) with monarch!
Monarch caterpillar!
Aster divaricatus 'Eastern Star' (woodland aster)
Monarda didyma 'Jacob Cline' (beebalm)
Hydrangea quercifolia (oak leaf hydrangea)
Hibiscus mosecheutos (swamp rose mallow)
Detail milkweed
Camp Small bench from trunk of a salvaged white oak (Quercus alba)
Bench made by Camp Small, a wood waste collection yard run by the Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks that seeks to recycle fallen trees from the city.
RPEMS famous fish (with new base!), from 2001 "Fish Out of Water" a Baltimore City sculpture project
The native gardens at Roland Park Elementary School were installed in 2013 under the supervision of Zolna Russell, from Floura Teeter. The concept was a rain garden, with rain barrels and water catchment systems, and an array of water-loving plants including red-stemmed dogwood, viburnum nudum, hibiscus, golden ragwort, and others. The plants thrived initially but gardens need perpetual love and care and they were soon overwhelmed with invasives like ailanthus, mugwort, english ivy, and oriental bittersweet and in 2018 the school hired me to sustain and tend the gardens. My goal for 2021 is to expand on the existing native plant materials, through grant writing, and to develop an outdoor education program at the school that will fully integrate the native gardens and their habitats into the curricula.