Discover Cambridge Pocket Parks

Discover Cambridge Pocket Parks is a publication of the Cambridge Plant & Garden Club in cooperation with the City of Cambridge, and now, copies are available to borrow at Cambridge Public Main library and branches! For the first time 21 small “pocket parks” scattered through the City of Cambridge are identified and celebrated. Defined simply as under-an-acre open spaces with trees, plantings, and a place to sit, their primary purpose is respite and repose, rather than recreation. Cambridge pocket parks are small green oases in our City’s urban landscape.

Read or download the book here, or read a digital copy on the Internet Archive here.

Reserve a copy of the book at a CPL branch here.

Cambridge Plant & Garden Club Partners with Local High School to Sell Native Plants

For a third year, Cambridge Plant & Garden Club offered native plants for sale in collaboration with students from the local Cambridge high school—Cambridge Rindge & Latin. The students organized the ordering technology and helped to prepare orders. CP&GC members and associates selected the plant species, developed the marketing information, promoted and managed the sale, and purchased the plants.

We selected four shade and four sun plants and bundled them, selling three plants—at just a little over cost. In 2022 we sold 1,100 one-year old plants; in 2023, about 1,400; and this year almost 1,900 plants.

The plants come from North Creek Nurseries in Landenberg, PA requiring a winter order. The orders arrived in early May and CP&GC and the students got to work to sort the orders. Our goal is not to make money, but to get as many local, native plants out into the world as we can.

We have also partnered with the CRLS students on two other related projects:

native plant seed distribution at Cambridge-wide events including the City’s compost giveaway and Biodiversity Day held at a local park. The high school students created and published native plant “zines” for our events and we included these with the seeds and plugs.
creating a native plant garden at the high school. Proceeds from the plant plug sale will go towards this effort and other student-led environmental initiatives.

CP&GC’s partnership with the students has been very fruitful, the students providing technological know-how, creative publications, and physical labor. The garden club members (and associates) provided horticultural expertise, funding, a space for order preparation and distribution, recycled materials for plant packaging (newspapers, plastic bags and cardboard boxes) and labor.

While CP&GC is getting many more native plants out into the world each year, we feel our real accomplishment has been in raising awareness of the importance of native plants. Our community is engaged and eager to make Cambridge a more welcoming place for butterflies, bees and birds.