In March 2024 Verdant Richmond partnered with the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association to enhance the rather spartan landscaping in Pleasant’s Park in Oregon Hill, one of Richmond’s most eclectic and historic neighborhoods. The park, a large green space amongst the blocks of wood-frame row houses from the 1840s that comprise most of the residences of S. Laurel Street, is just a block east of Hollywood Cemetery, and popular with neighbors and students from nearby Virginia Commonwealth University.
In two separate plantings, volunteers installed over two hundred perennials, the vast majority of which are native pollinators including bee balm, milkweed, black-eyed Susans, coneflowers, coreopsis, woodland phlox, cardinal flower, baptisia, oxeye sunflower, alumroot, ferns, yarrow, butterfly weed, and peonies. Complimenting the flowers, volunteers installed New Jersey teas, hydrangeas, and Virginia sweet spire, as well as two river birch, two dogwoods, two Royal Star magnolias, and a serviceberry tree. These plantings will balance the poplars, catalpa, and yellowwood trees planted by neighbors several years ago, as well as recent improvements by the city’s Department of Parks, Recreation, and Community Facilities, to provide a beautiful habitat for native insects and birds in the near future while still keeping the park visitor friendly.