We are thrilled to announce that Southern Maryland Audubon has been awarded a generous grant from National Audubon to help create a native plant learning garden at the newly opened Lexington Manor Passive Park Community Gardens in Lexington Park, MD.
This is a community garden—and the Lexington Park community and LMPPCG partners will be integral in building, planting and maintaining the native plant garden. The grant will also support workshops and education events with our partners to demonstrate how you can incorporate natives in your own garden, school or work space.
The native plant garden has another major role: It will attract more pollinators to the adjacent vegetable garden, contributing to healthier, more robust crops.
This Audubon in Action grant will allow the community, Southern Maryland Audubon and our partners to begin building the native garden beds this summer outside the perimeter of the thriving vegetable garden. We will planting seedlings and plugs in the fall, the best time for planting natives.
Southern Maryland Audubon also recently installed three donated Eastern Bluebird nest boxes near the community garden and will be monitoring them for new residents.
We thank St. Mary’s County Recreation & Parks for supporting the community native plant garden and nest boxes, along with the amazingly lush vegetable garden.
We look forward to working with the Lexington Park community and the many partners that have toiled tirelessly for the past several years to make the Lexington Manor Passive Park Community Gardens a reality. Southern Maryland Audubon is proud to join this dedicated community of gardeners!