Bees were among the animals that also visit the greenspace, meaning that there is a honey or bumble bee hive not too far away.

Audubon Community Nature Center held its monthly “First Friday” meeting at First Lutheran to celebrate the new urban greenspace that was once an abandoned lot.

“We wanted to create something that the public could enjoy,” said Katie Finch, Audubon senior nature educator. “We’ve grown many edible plants and herbs to encourage people to come in and use the space.”

The project started in 2002, when a house next to First Lutheran, located at 120 Chandler Street, was condemned, but it wasn’t torn down until 10 years later. According to Finch, hundreds of houses have been condemned, but the city only has the budget to tear down a few. The house in question was moved up since First Lutheran showed interest in using the lot once the house was torn down.

“The church wondered what to do with the space,” Finch said. “And a group of us came together and decided to turn it into a greenspace. We wanted to create a space that would not only be for people, but also benefit animals like insects and birds.”

So far, the greenspace has been flourishing, Finch said. Concerns were raised about animal and human vandalism, but Finch said that so far only one person has vandalized the space. Their biggest concern, she said, are woodchucks.

“We’ve found evidence of deer coming into the space, but they haven’t destroyed anything yet,” she said. “Woodchucks are the main problem. They eat everything, so we’ve been trying to find different ways to stop them.”

The greenspace hosts a large variety of native and exotic plants, including milkweed for butterflies, thyme, crocus, raspberry and blueberry bushes and several apple trees. Bumble bees, honey bees and different butterflies flocked around the different flowers.

The lot has a gentle slope and winding path, curving around the apple trees, and in the middle of the lot is a gazebo with hanging flowers.

Finch said that the church has been tending to the apple trees rigorously, as they require a lot of work. However, the trees have already yielded fruit.

“We didn’t know how much work went into apple trees when we first got them,” Finch said. “They can get a lot of diseases and fungus. But we’ve had a good harvest of apples so far. I’ve even managed to make an apple pie with some of them.”

First Lutheran had received many donations from neighbors when the garden was first being planted. The church has held several giveaways when some of the plants start to take on too much space, and the two groups are hoping to do more plant giveaways in the future.

080219 Greenspace 1 and 2 jpeg: 6Archives Published Pics August 2019

Bees were among the animals that also visit the greenspace, meaning that there is a honey or bumble bee hive not too far away. Finch said that the difference between species of honey bees and bumble bees is that bumble bees have fuzzy abdomens, while honey or carpenter bees have shiny abdomens.