Newtown Township Looking For Volunteers To Help Plant Pollinator Garden

NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP, PA — Newtown Township is putting out the call for volunteers to help with a community planting project at Roberts Ridge Park this fall.

Help is needed to plant more than 1,000 native flowers over a two day period as part of the creation of a pollinator garden at the 22-acre park at 286 Frost Lane designed to attract bees, wasps, moths, butterflies, birds, flies, small mammals, and bats.

"We're looking for anybody willing to volunteer. All the plants will be there. We just need help putting them in the ground," said Newtown Township Supervisor Elen Snyder who is helping to create the garden with the township's Environmental Advisory Commission (EAC).

The community planting takes place over a two day period - Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 4 and 5. The plantings are scheduled to take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days and will continue until the project is done.

The EAC recommends bringing a smaller hand-held trowel, a watering can filled with water, and wearing old clothes that may get dirty. Gloves are also recommended.

Advance signups are now being taken for 2 hour shifts. See the live signup link in the flyer below.

"Come on out and be a part of something that can be enjoyed for years to come," said Snyder. "This pollinator garden will not only be available for beauty but also for educational purposes," said Snyder. "We're going to have plaques installed with QR codes that will take you to an information site that describes the cycle of life in the plant and insect world and tells all about the individual plants."

Planned by Britney O'Donnell Garden Design, the garden will include more than 200 different pollinator-friendly native plants, including asters, coreopsis, viburnum, among other plants. The garden will also be laid out with woodchip pathways and several benches where people can sit, read or just observe the nature around them.

"You're not going to see a lot of color now," said Snyder. "A lot will be small plantings that will come to life in the spring when it will become a place of beauty."

Snyder said the new garden will serve as a blueprint for future gardens throughout the township and for other communities to use.

"We're going to make everything in Newtown Township closer to nature in every way we can by adding these gardens where we can," said Snyder.

According to Snyder, there are "deserts right now where there aren't any bees because there are no flowers for them to land on and collect the pollen and to transfer it to other plants that need it to survive. Everything green that we eat grows in a field and is dependent upon pollinators. We need to create these gardens so the bees can stop there and the cycle of life can continue."