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A yard owner decided that she was tired of soggy sod in one area of her lawn. She would rather have native plants there that liked moist or wet soil. Journeywork volunteers spent a couple of hours helping her sheet mulch last winter. A few other Journeywork volunteers helped her plant plugs last spring (bottom left). We chose three species and planted 50 plugs of each, along with one buttonbush.
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This section of her yard transformed into the landscape on the bottom right this spring. Instead of grass that just needs mowing, there is now habitat. The blue flag iris (Iris versicolor) is a host plant for 13 species of butterflies and moths. The golden ragwort (Packera aurea) is a host plant for 17 butterfly and moth species. Tussock sedge (Carex stricta) supports many kinds of caterpillars, including the Mulberry Wing and the Black Dash. Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) hosts 25 species of butterflies and moths. All provide nectar and pollen for a large variety of bees and butterflies.
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And for the humans: it is lovely. As you can see above, the irises are blooming now.
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These are our roots: humans helping humans transform private landscape into vibrant habitat for the more-than-human world.
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With tremendous gratitude for the yard owners and the volunteers who are knitting this community together,
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Volunteer opportunities abound!
We are installing our biggest project yet at Plymouth Meeting Friends School (below left)--1103 plants--thanks to the Xerces Society, which gave us one of their pollinator plant grants. We have three opportunities for you to help make that meadow a beautiful reality! If you help out on June 1, you can also enjoy the school's Strawberry Festival.
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We would also really appreciate a few more volunteers to help add flowers to a shady garden in Lower Gwynedd (below middle) and to sunny beds in North Wales. Our hosts will provide snacks and drinks.
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- Plymouth Meeting Friends School on Saturday, June 1, 11:00-2:00 and Wednesday, June 5, 6:00-7:30 and Saturday, June 8, 10:00-1:00
- Lower Gwynedd on Sunday, June 2, 1:00-4:00
- North Wales on Sunday, June 9, 10:00-1:00
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During the second week in May, Journeywork picked up and sorted 1008 plants of five species to distribute to Pollinator Palooza participants at three locations. Thank you, Debra, for helping to sort! Some of our volunteers learned about the five kinds of plants and the garden design so that they could help others install their gardens. Thank you, Lynn, Brittany, and Mark!
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I thoroughly enjoyed meeting and greeting and chatting with every participant and appreciate those who sent pictures of their newly installed gardens. Please keep those pictures coming!
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We will be offering Pollinator Palooza again this fall, so spread the word!
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Pollinator Pathway signs still available
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We only have four of the large signs left. They are $20. If you order from our website, I will ship it to you!
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Fox Chase Farm receives our first plant grant
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Thanks to generous contributions from our supporters at the end of last year, we were able to donate plants to create a pollinator garden at Fox Chase Farm of the School District of Philadelphia. We were delighted to work with Greg Smith and Olivia Cochran and their students. High school students in the Junior MANRRS Ambassadors Program sheet mulched the area, learned about the species and developed a planting plan, and then led eighth graders from Baldi Middle School in planting the garden. Mountain mint, anise hyssop, bee balm, and foxglove beardtongue will become a beneficial hedgerow for the crops growing nearby, and the garden will join the Pollinator Pathway!
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Two yard owners fill their beds with plants
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One way to begin adding biodiversity to your yard is to fill the garden beds you already have. If you plant densely, you will crowd out weed competition and add more beauty, color, and texture to your yard. This doesn't happen overnight, and you will still need to do some weeding, but you will never weed again just to keep the mulch looking like mulch!
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Plants in this full sun yard include butterfly weed, narrowleaf mountain mint, dense blazing star, black-eyed susans, bee balm, anise hyssop, aromatic aster, sedges, and foxglove beardtongue.
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This shady bed used to be full of pachysandra and now contains white-tinged sedge, blue woodland phlox, columbine, zigzag goldenrod, blue mistflower, white wood aster, and coral bells.
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Students learn as they plant at Crefeld
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I met with students of Nicole Greaves at the Crefeld School on May 9 to talk about the benefits of native plants and to turn a little bit of their lawn into a pollinator garden alongside their vegetable garden. Presto change-o, they dug up the sod, designed the bed, planted, watered, and mulched like pros!
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A new woodland garden at Gwynedd Friends School
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Journeywork received a grant from the Hardy Plant Society/Mid-Atlantic Group to restore a section of the wooded area at Gwynedd Friends School. School families and Journeywork volunteers planted three paw paw trees, four winterberry shrubs, two eastern red cedar trees, and a variety of native woodland wildflowers, low woodland sedge, and bottlebrush grass.
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The Friends of Vernon Park expand pollinator garden
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Journeywork was happy to help the Friends of Vernon Park add native plants to their pollinator garden during their recent Love Your Park planting on May 11.
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She Held Her Breath in Wonder illustrator graduates from Ursinus
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If you have looked at a copy of my children's book, She Held Her Breath in Wonder, you know what a talented artist Samantha Holden is. Her art was recently on display at the annual student exhibition at the Berman Art Museum at Ursinus College, and the campus library is purchasing her watercolors, Postcards to Tomorrow (top left). Samantha just graduated as one of five salutatorians of her class. Congratulations, Samantha! Proceeds from our book are donated to Journeywork--you can order a copy from our website or pick one up from the Ursinus bookstore (top right)!
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If Journeywork inspires you to sheet mulch, start seeds, or plant some native plants in your yard, please send us a picture! Let's celebrate and support each other!
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