The Go Native! Garden is an entirely native plant garden located on Fairground Road in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, steps from the East Buffalo Township municipal building, the East Buffalo Township recycling center, and the Lewisburg Farmer’s Market. The 2,000 square foot garden plot has three sections – no-mow grasses, pollinator perennials, and rain garden perennials – for species diversity, aesthetic variety, and varying environmental benefits. Native species play an important role in ecological health and stability, as they can attract local pollinators, establish deep root systems to hold soil in place, and are adapted to local climatic conditions, minimizing the need for fertilization. The Go Native! garden is designed and operated under the Merrill W. Linn conservancy.
The Merrill W. Linn conservancy is a nonprofit land trust based in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1988 with the intention to protect and preserve local land and waterways for their ecological, historical, scientific, educational, and recreational value. The Go Native! garden is an exhibition and educative effort underneath the conservancy’s Linking Landscapes initiative. This initiative has a long-term objective to restore fragmented ecologies in the central Susquehanna region from agricultural and residential land use, by way of connecting small habitat patches from nearby larger patches to aid plant and animal species movement, migration, and interbreeding.
The Go Native! garden furthers the mission of the Linking Landscapes initiative by serving as a model for future native plant gardens in the region, by teaching home gardeners, students, property managers, and other community members about the importance and benefits of native plant gardening, and by providing viable habitat and food sources for local wildlife, like birds, bees, moths, butterflies, and other pollinators.
To learn more about Merrill W. Linn: https://linnconservancy.org/
To learn more about Linking Landscapes: https://linnconservancy.org/linkinglandscapes/
