I first met Linda, a member of the St. Clair Evangelical Missionary Church, when she visited me to get a rhubarb cutting. As she toured my garden, it soon became clear that we shared a love for native plants and community outreach. She and Becky were just getting ready to submit an application for a Pollinate TO grant and having gone through the process, I offered to take a look at it.
Since community engagement was so critical, they decided to create a seed-sitting group to grow native plants for their gardens as well as to give away to community members. I met with the group in November 2021 to tell them about Project Swallowtail, show them pictures of the plants they would be growing and distribute seeds.
They started work on their gardens on May 5, 2021 and I went by to take a look.
In the weeks that followed they had planting sessions with a local school and welcomed the children with fun activities and lots of hands-on sessions.
On June 18, 2022, I went back for a hands-on session to pot up seedlings and share
There were already lots of pots and bins of soil set up so members just began separating and potting up the seedlings.
It was a fantastic event and everyone left with lots of seedlings and new knowledge about growing and sharing native plants. Some of the remaining seedlings grown by the SCEMC members will be planted in their new gardens while most will be given to community members at upcoming garden tours.
