Master Gardeners

Northeast Tennessee Master Gardeners became involved at Warriors’ Path State Park in 2006 to help maintain the plantings at the new Boundless Playground. Today, they continue to maintain and beautify the park.

All plants used are native to Tennessee and to the Park. Native trees and shrubs used in the Playground are Serviceberry, Hearts-a-Bustin’, Redbuds, Inkberry and Ninebark.

We next designed and planted the stations along the Lions Club Narnia Braille Trail. The plantings are meant to depict the winter and spring scenes from the C.S. Lewis novel “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. The area provided excellent habitat for a Fern Glade with Lady Fern, Marginal Wood Fern and Christmas Fern. The small creek that runs through this area was planted with wet-tolerant plants Dutchman’s Pipe and Solomon’s Seal.

The Anderson Treehouse was built in the spring of 2010. Plants used in this area include Alternate-leaf Dogwood, Spicebush, Carolina Silverbell and Possumhaw Viburnum.

The Amphitheater was built in the spring of 2012. Two rain gardens were designed to collect rain water and runoff from the surrounding hilly areas. The ponding water slowly filters back into the ground and evaporates back into the atmosphere. The soil and plants help filter pollutants and sediment out of the water. The native plants chosen for this garden have deep fibrous roots and tolerate intermittent periods of standing water and attract birds and butterflies. Plants used here include Button Bush, Virginia Sweetspire, Aster, Butterfly Weed and Switchgrass.

Plants donated from Betty and Neil Ottenfeld’s personal collection were used to create a bed in front of the Recreation Building in June 2013. Plants in this bed include Serviceberry, Hearts-a-Bustin’, Columbine, Virginia Spiderwort, Milkweed, Rudbeckia and New England Aster.

Master Gardeners help organize volunteers from other community groups to help with planting, watering and weedingAn unanticipated problem is the large amount of invasive plants, especially Multiflora Rose, Japanese Privet and Japanese Stilt Grass, which are removed on an ongoing basis.