Amphitheater

The Amphitheater

Shaping Our Amphitheater at the Mill ...

Landscape Plan for the new Amphitheater.

Progress Continues - Taking Soil Samples - Clearing the Space - Adding Benches - Landscape Rocks, & Plantings, Amphitheater Floor, etc.

Click to enlarge.

The Amphitheater

The Mill’s amphitheater will serve as the main venue for family nature programs, and special educational events, nature retreats and perhaps even small musical programs. It offers many different opportunities. The hillside gardens are designed as a pollinator demonstration garden and an outdoor education venue. It’s the perfect setting to introduce children and adults to nature as birds, butterflies and bumble bees visit the flowering plants The garden volunteers strongly support the amphitheater garden. Because of COVID, many families as well as our volunteers feel comfortable being in an outdoor venue.

The amphitheater will serve as a retreat. Studies show that slowing down and intentionally spending time in nature can help relieve stress and anxiety, improve your mood, and boost feelings of happiness and wellbeing. It Being in nature has been associated with numerous health benefits, including stress relief, lowered blood pressure, and heightened attention span Whatever you call it – forest bathing, ecotherapy, mindfulness in nature, green time or the wilderness cure – Mill park visitors will benefit from the opportunity to stop and spend 20 to 30 minutes immersed in a nature setting.

Native pollinator friendly plants native plants are selected for this garden as well as plants with four season interest. They are different than those in Culp’s Clearing or the Race Walk gardens. Those gardens are in sunny locations while the amphitheater is sited in a shady nook that was once a stone quarry. Grant applications have been submitted for funding.

It’s an industrious project for our small group of dedicated volunteers and we will be announcing a few community work days to welcome additional
volunteers for specific stages of the project. If you would like to support the development of the mill gardens for community use and aren’t able to volunteer, we welcome and appreciate your monetary donation as the Park’s gardens have been created based on grants and donations. We are grateful for your interest, enthusiasm, and support for this very special and unique community park.

To make a donation, go to https://www.bondsvillemillpark.org/support.html

Spring Plants Blooming in the Amphitheater

Flowers Planned for the Amphitheater

Amphitheater Plants

Perennials
Heuchera Americana Dales Strain ( 25 )
Heuchera Autumn Bride ( 25 )
Geranium maculatum ( 15 )
Packera ( 100 )
Aruncus dioicus ( 15 )
Native Pachysandra ( Bare root ) ( 750 )
Blue Bells ( 25 )
Tiarella ( Oak Leaf ) ( 25 )
Tiarella ( Brandywine ) ( 25 )
Tiarella cordifolia ( 15 )
Phlox divararicata ( 25 )
Phlox stolonifera ( 25 )
Carex Bunny Blue ( 15 )
Carex Appalachia ( 30 )
Christmas ferns ( 30 )
Solidago golden Fleece ( 20 )

Evergreen Shrubs
American Holly ( 5 )
Prostrate American holly ( 11 )
Sheep Laurel ( 7 )
Leucothoe(15)
Illicium ( 8)
Piers Floribunda (15 )
Rhododendron Carolina ( 15 )
Native Rhododendron ( 15 )
Rhododendron Vasei ( 15 )
Kalmia Latifolia (14)

Deciduous Shrubs and trees
Bottle bush Buckeye ( 4 )
Hydragea arborescens( 45 )
Sour wood tree ( 1 )
Service berry ( Multi stem ) ( 3 )
Blue Berry ( 15 )
Clethra ( 21 )