Woods Church Goes “Native”

Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church is going “native.” The Woods Gardeners applied for and received a grant from Unity Gardens for $1,000 to plant native plants on their property. Volunteers recently installed the 75 native plants that were purchased with the grant.

As part of their efforts to be responsible stewards of the church property, the gardening group is focusing on native plants, so the Unity Gardens grant was suggested as an opportunity. The Woods Gardeners proposed to plant 50 native Gro-Low sumacs and 20 native New Jersey tea plants in the parking lot islands to capture runoff, and five black chokeberry bushes on a steep slope to slow runoff and capture soil. The New Jersey tea has white flowers in the spring, the sumac (not the poisonous plant) produces berries that birds love in the fall, and the black chokeberries provide flowers for pollinators and berries for birds. The volunteers learned that native plants are important for local bird and pollinator populations, and also contribute to a healthier Chesapeake Bay watershed. Native plants support 30 times the number of native insects than non-native plants do, and almost all birds feed their young exclusively insects. Native plants also provide nectar for pollinators, including hummingbirds, native bees, butterflies, moths and bats.

The Unity Gardens grant for native plants will be a gift that keeps on giving - the volunteers are hoping to see some happy birds and butterflies on the church grounds next spring!

For more information on Woods Church, see www.woodschurch.org and for details about Unity Gardens, see www.unitygardens.org.