Melbourne Municipal Band Area
1924 Melody Lane, Melbourne
Designed By: Maple Street Natives
Installed By: Maple Street Natives, Conradina Chapter of the Native Plant Society, and Melbourne Municipal Band volunteers
Started: 2014
Percentage of Native Plants: 100% of the garden excluding blanket flowers recently deemed non-native
Land Available on Tour: The garden consists of a courtyard between the Melbourne Municipal Band buildings as well as the surrounding walkways.
Amount of Sun and Shade: Mixed sun/shade
Unique Features and Animals: Atala butterflies and caterpillars
Landscape Description:
Originally the garden mostly consisted of shrubs, coontie and Muhly grass. Recently we have been adding groundcover and flowering plants that we propagate from our home gardens.
Challenges:
Weeds, grasses and extra soil needed to be removed, particularly from the courtyard area. Homeless people would break in through the fence looking for shelter and then leave a lot of trash behind. We removed the top 5 inches or so of weeds and soil and leveled the bed. We laid cardboard down as weed control and cut holes to put the plants in place.
