Harrison Street Pollinator Meadow Project (2018 – present)

Monarch butterfly on Aster in meadow.
Photo by Michael Myers

The Harrison Street Pollinator Meadow is an ongoing habitat restoration project next to the W&OD Trail along Harrison Street in Leesburg.  The project was created as a partnership between Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy, Friends of the Washington and Old Dominion Trail, Northern Virginia Regional Parks Authority with support and funding from the Leesburg Garden Club. Installation began in the fall of 2018 under the leadership of Ann Garvey.  Volunteers planted 1358 native plants on 7,600 square feet. More plants were planted in 2019 for a total of 1519 plants comprised of 43 species.

Interpretive panels were installed in the meadow and unveiled with at a ceremony on October 28, 2020  with NOVA Parks, Leesburg Town Council and the Leesburg Garden Club.

Work on the meadow has been in maintenance mode. In October 2023, volunteers weed whacked the entire area and planted over 700 native grasses. In 2024 volunteers met to cut back non-native invasive plants such as chicory and spotted knapweed and weed whacked the entire area. In 2025 volunteers focused on maintaining >150 native plants within the center 100’ x 20’ area, where we relocated surviving native plants from the other 2 abandoned areas. We also applied cardboard and leaf mulch to spaces in between the native plants to lessen the impact of non-native grass and plant pressure and decrease the need for volunteers to constantly pull and weed whack invasives.

Sign up to receive updates on the meadow and future volunteer work.

For more information about the care of the Harrison Street Meadow, view the meadow development and management plan. The plan includes links to facts sheets about  invasive plants identified in the meadow.