BERLIN, Md. – The Lower Shore Land Trust held their fifth annual pollinator garden tour in the town of Berlin. They had nine private gardens for people to tour, plus plein air artists. This year was their biggest turn out.
“This year we have some of the highest ticket sales that we’ve ever had before,” Brooke Orr, the Americorps Program Specialist says.
This was her first year working the event, and many people came out to show their support. Orr says with an event like this, it takes months to prepare, and she walked me through how it works with the guests, ““People will buy their tickets and then when they show up they’ll receive their garden tour button and a pamphlet that our executive administrator, Margo Resto has created – it’s amazing. It highlights all the different gardens on a map. There’s a QR code map too so that you can direct yourself that way if you’re in the car.”
She adds, “Then you’ll take your pamphlet and you’ll walk around to the different gardens and there’s a passport inside and once you’ve found the specific thing in each garden – so I know in one, there’s two dancing frog figurines and so once you find those, you would put a little star on your passport and once you got them all, you put into a drawing to win a free island creamery gift card.”
The event was for everyone. They even included a plein air activity where kids painted with a guided instructor. The plein air artists from each garden painted whatever was in the garden, and after the event, Orr says at the end of the month, they hold an auction to sell those paintings. If there are paintings that do not sell, they will hold another event in November called the Flannel Formal. This event includes live music, food and games and tickets are required. It’s an event where people can wear flannels, whether it’s dressy or casual.
Kirk McBride, one of the professional painters has been painting professionally for 50 years. He typically paints old cars, landscapes, and sometimes people. For this event, he painted his neighbor’s front porch. McBride explains the meaning of what plein air is, “Plein air is a french term. It just means in the atmosphere so instead of painting in the art studio, you take your easel and you go out in nature and you paint right from the source.” He says, “We’re trying to bring awareness for people to bring back the native plants in their yards and make them a part of the gardens. It’s a good cause to try and keep areas natural and beautiful.”
I had the chance to tour his neighbor’s garden. Laura Mulvaney, who has been growing her garden for two years and she’s continuing to grow. She says, “This is a new garden. We’ve lived here for only two years and so I’ve tried to transform this yard from a place which was really not supporting any wildlife to one which is supporting biodiversity, so I exclusively plant native plants here. I’m hoping to increase the habitat for pollinators and birds.”
Each garden has also gone through the organization’s Pollinator Certification Program to get approved for the event. Orr explains, “we come and certify your garden for being an adequate place for pollinators to be – so like there will be certifications like you need water, natives, like some sort of shelter.”
The Lower Shore Land Trust also holds plant sales for the gardeners to buy and feature in their gardens. She says, ““We had over 100 different species of native plants for people all around to come and purchase and put into their garden, so it’s really a way for us to showcase the plants that they’ve gotten from us.”
They sell plants such as, milkweed, coneflower, flocks, grasses, shrubs, flowers, trees such as paw paws and so much more. The plant sales are not only for the gardeners, but for anyone that would like their own garden as well.
The whole purpose for the event, Orr says, is really a time for people to outreach with the community and just come together and celebrate pollinators during the springtime. Orr says, “So this event particularly is all about pollinators and putting natives into the ground and just teaching not only kids but adults too about how when you plant natives, you nourish the plants that are supposed to be in your specific area. It attracts our essential pollinators like bees and butterflies which provide food which is super important here on the lower shore.”
She says pollinators are important because without them, we wouldn’t have most produce that we eat today. When we think of Pollinators we think of bees and butterflies, but there are so much more. Orr lists the pollinators, “There are beetles which include like ladybugs and even lightning bugs. There’s bats, which they’re actually essential for making tequila. Moths um hummingbirds, there’s ants too – ants can do it. A lot of insects too, like they don’t know they’re pollinators when they are because when they go to eat, they catch pollen on themselves and then when they go to another flower then they end up pollinating inadvertently. So really any produce you know you’re gonna need pollinators. Something that really puts it into perspective is a statistic which is every one in three bites you need pollination.”
The main issue that has been causing the decline of pollinator populations is invasive species. Orr explains, “So there’s definitely a lack of pollinators, so when we plant invasives, they spread like wildfire and since they don’t host our pollinators, it aids to the decline in them so, planting natives does the opposite and helps them thrive.”
Laura Mulvaney’s garden was covered in invasive species. She says, “The very first thing I had to do was remove invasive plants. We had Wisteria, oriental bittersweet, Japanese honeysuckle, English Ivy. Those were the big ones I would say”
Ways people can help are to plant native plants to attract local pollinators. Orr says an event like this can help anyone understand, “It also helps the parents too or just adults in general see like ‘oh I didn’t know that this like – something so easy like just putting like a bird bath out could bring and help so much’”
Mulvaney says starting small could make a huge difference, ““Just start small. Just start in a small place where you wanna make change, so like adding plants that support pollinators, that’s the change I wanna see.” she adds, “I think for me, gardening is a lot of experimentation, so do not be afraid to like look at the conditions that you have in the place that you wanna plant so look at the sun look at the soil.”
Other ways to help is to volunteer. More information can be found on the Lower Shore Land Trust’s website.
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