Meridian Township residents are taking the initiative to go the extra mile.
On March 27, more than 30 residents convened for “Gardening Native Plants” at the Meridian Township Service Center hosted by the Harris Nature Center that focused on giving residents the knowledge to bring native plants into their own gardens.
While some individuals came to the event for the purpose of simply learning to garden, the impact was much greater said Senior Park Naturalist Kati Adams who began the event.
The growth of the community presence at the event over the last few years has been surprising and brings awareness to the importance this has in the conversation of global warming, she said.
Brochures given out at the gardening native plants event in Meridian Township (Source: Brittany Waugh)
“It’s happening across the world, where we are planting with cultivated plants or cutting things down,” said Adams. “People do not realize the damage it’s doing to the environment and how planting more native plants could stop this.”
The impact of global warming and its effect not only centered around plants but the insect and animal lives that depend on them. Assuring that bees, butterflies, birds, etc. all were able to benefit from native plant life was important for many of the residents looking to garden. Patty Connor, a Meridian Township resident, found the event very important for every aspect of the environment.
“An event like this is giving people more of an awareness of not only what plants are helpful for the environment, but to native bees and critters,” said Connor. “It helps us, just so we can understand a full cycle of what it means to have good healthy plants and their impact on animals and even us.”
Vern Stephens, owner of Designs by Nature and an event speaker, expressed the importance of native plants for creatures and how certain things can affect their health, thus ultimately affecting us.
Stephens and Adams recognized how several naturalists, gardeners, and farmers across Michigan are contributing to environmental change.