Our North Park Sakura will bloom beautifully this spring, five years after the initial planting. The blooming period is expected to be the first two to three weeks of April (check our website and Facebook page for periodic updates). Submit your best photos, one per person/email address. The deadline is May 5, 2014. The top three photographs will be awarded gift certificates from local restaurants.
Pittsburgh Sakura Project 2014 Spring Planting Day
Please attend our Spring Planting Day!
We will have 37 trees to plant. 35 are thanks to Allegheny County’s TreeVitalize Program, and 2 are memorial trees.
When: April 5, 2014 10 am – 1 pm
Where: Park at the boathouse parking area in North Park. Register at Harmony or Latrobe shelter (Please check our website or Facebook page for updates to the meeting place or registration).
What: To start us off, there will be a little music, provided by Mr. Koichiro Suzuki, of the River City Brass Band, a speech, and a planting demonstration. There will also be a raffle, including a $500 discount coupon for roundtrip to Japan through Chicago courtesy of ANA (All Nippon Airways) and the Japan Association of Greater Pittsburgh.
Besides planting, we will spread mulch, water trees, and install deer-protection fences, so we can use volunteers of all strengths!
What to bring: We have some equipment, but if you can, please bring a shovel, gloves, your own water bottle, etc. Work boots are recommended. If you have a Sakura Project T-shirt, please wear it.
With so many trees, we need many volunteers! Please contact Yoko Motoyama (yokohm@gmail.com) to sign up.
Deer fence reinforcement and watering 11/10/2013
Work day on November 10, 2013
The sakura trees and the native trees we have been planting continue to grow each year. The trunks now have just the right softness and strength for male deer to rub their antlers through the mesh of the deer guards. They do this in fall during mating season. We reinforced some deer guards on the fall planting day, but not all. So with two volunteers we resumed a week later; we wrapped metal fencing around the trunks, hoping this method helps keep the trees free from scars. It took 3 hours for four of us to finish up all four rolls protecting 64 trees. We talked to the trees and the trees talked to us.
The landscape designers, Kary and Rick, have also been taking care of the trees. They watered the day after the planting day and returned again to water with the 20 gallon water barrel on wheels. They also worked 3 hours on Sunday. When we all finished we saw three deer browsing on the hill.
North Park was a farm land many decades ago. Since it became a county park in 1927, almost all of the older trees in the park were planted. Many of these trees have reached maturity and are dying so planting more is important. Trees are good habitat for deer and other animals. They provide many benefits to humans too.
