The August Sustainable Blacksburg Garden Tour was held at Shadowlake Village. This was the first neighborhood-scale garden tour. Residents of SLV highlighted an array of sustainable garden and landscape practices they are practicing not only on their private lots, but across shared open spaces: meadows, forests, and gardens on their 33 acre property. Some highlights of the tour included:
- 17 acre mature hardwood forest (preserved by intentional site design by the neighborhood’s founding members)
- 8 acre native grassland meadow
- Invasive species removal efforts on common lands
- Native plant propagation station (funded by a Sustainable Blacksburg mini-grant)
- Community gardens and orchard
- Forest farming efforts to integrate wild native edible and medicinal plants into the forest understory
- Native plant and pollinator/wildlife friendly landscaping, both in common spaces and private yards
- Community composting
The completed native plant propagation station!
Tour attendees learn about the Shadowlake Village orchard.
Sharing refreshments and garden ideas is a fun part of the tours.
