Idle Hour Park

Located at 212 St. Ann Drive, the 23 acre park offers 2 baseball fields, a T-Ball field and a football field where Lexington youth teams practice and play. There is also an exercise path and a playground for small children. The park is the home of the Lexington Senior Center, completed in 2016. Idle Hour Creek runs along the edge of the park.

The streams in Idle Hour are a blessing to our neighborhood. They are on public ground and can be enjoyed by anyone. But we may never have asked ourselves: where do they come from and where are they going? Who takes responsibility for them? Are they well taken care of?

The streams in Idle Hour form the head waters of West Hickman Creek which joins the Kentucky River south of Lexington. In Idle Hour Park, a No-Mow zone along the stream gives rise to plants that are reclaiming its banks for nature: silver maples, willows, birches, goldenrod, ragweed and grasses. But inevitably, invasive bush honeysuckle and other invasive plants have established themselves as well.

The greatest threat to the park stream is a kudzu colony near the T-ball field, probably the largest in Lexington. In May 2021, the LFUCG Department of Parks and Recreation has begun to bring the kudzu under control. It will require repeated spraying with herbicide, and the effort will extend into 2022.

In the meantime neighborhood volunteers are removing other invasive plants along the stream bank that threaten to suppress desirable vegetation. In the spring of 2021 we have tackled bush honeysuckle and poison hemlock. Eventually we will plant some small trees and shrubs to shade the stream bed. We also organize volunteer events to pick up trash from the stream banks.

Please join us to make improvements to Idle Hour Park and keep it good looking. Send us a message if you want to help.