Aylus Great Neck Branch Volunteer at Bethpage State Park on 6/15/24
Today, June 15th, 2024, Aylus Great Neck Branch volunteered at Bethpage State Park. There is a really beautiful garden with a variety of plants and a greenhouse right next to it. The purpose of this is to help grow native plants to benefit the environment.
During our visit, we prepared fresh soil with tons of water and then filled the containers with that soil to provide for the new seedlings. We then dig a little hole into each of these containers, place a new sprout inside each of them and then fill up the hole again. These sprouts are later watered again and then placed out in the sun for them to continue to grow. We planted a variety of different native plants that are beneficial for the native environment. There are swamp milkweed, showy swamp milkweed, stiff tickseed, purple coneflower, pale purple coneflower, brown eye susan, orange milkweed, and downy sunflower that we planted.
In winter, the new seeds are placed outside to stratify allowing the seeds to germinate. After germinating, during the warmer weather which is what we did today, we would plant them in a container for further growth. Later these seeds would get distributed to other parks and donated to schools to provide for the environment.
Report by: Tiffany Zhang
Volunteers: Qifeng Han, Qishen Han, Jerry Li, Cianyu Chien, Marc Cheng, Tiffany Zhang (2 hours)
