A Visibility Garden for WES
As stewards of the earth, we ought to do our best to restore the natural balance. We can counter habitat loss by gardening with native perennials that have co-evolved with native insects. The non-profit Chesapeake Natives takes this a step further by propagating only local ecotype native species (LENS) that come specifically from the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Gardening with LENS maximizes benefits to the environment. For the past three years, the WES insect garden in our back yard has added only LENS plants.
A few months ago, WES senior leader, K.C. Slack, shared their vision of replacing the WES front lawn with plants. That is a challenging goal, but fortunately Chesapeake Natives announced a program called Visibility Gardens that fits this goal perfectly. The idea is to bring public awareness to native perennials by sponsoring gardens located along visible street footage. They help design the garden, provide a discount on plants, assist with preparation of the site, build a website describing the garden, and provide signage that includes a QR code linked to the website.
Kelly and Emilie from Chesapeake Natives met recently with K.C. and members of the Earth Ethics Action Team. They tested our front yard’s soil, assessed the amount of sunlight received at various locations, took measurements, and sketched a multi-year plan that starts with a shade garden under the row of holly trees and a sun garden surrounding the WES sign. We would then gradually fill the space between the two in years to come.
We need the following kinds of help to make this happen:
- Donation of funds
- Preparation of the site
- Installation of the plants
- Maintenance of the garden
We hope members and friends of WES will want to do one or more of these, as they are interested and able.
To make donations, please head to our donation page and select Visibility Garden from the drop down menu.
Questions? Contact Terry Smith (tlsmt@msn.com) or Ann Baker (AnnLouiseBaker@gmail.com).