Cambridge Plant & Garden Club to Host Three Projects to Support Natives
Governor Maura Healey has officially proclaimed April Native Plant Month!
While all plants protect our planet’s air, water, and soil, native plants do all this and more. Native plants have evolved with native bees, birds, and other wildlife; this complex relationship is extremely specialized and cannot be substituted with exotic or non-native plants. Native plants include large canopy trees, understory trees, shrubs, perennials, vines or grasses that are indigenous to an area with a unique growing habitat.
North American native species are at risk of extinction because they cannot get nutrition from non-native plants. Habitat loss, climate change, and pesticide use in addition to competition from non-natives, are contributing to the steep decline of insects, caterpillars, birds, and many other species.
The Cambridge Plant & Garden Club is hosting three projects to support natives and has partnered with many regional organizations like Grow Native Massachusetts.
The history of the Cambridge Plant & Garden Club goes back to January 1889, when a group of 20 women formed a club to share their knowledge of plants and gardens. As the club’s membership grew, interests expanded from their own gardens to conservation and civic projects. Over the decades, club members have been involved in planting and conservation projects throughout Cambridge. Today project work is central to the club, but as in the late 1800s, the club’s foundation is a shared love of plants and gardens.
CP&GC’s mission is “to increase knowledge of and to stimulate interest in all elements of horticulture, botany, and design, and to support conservation and community improvement in the urban setting of Cambridge.”
Cambridge Community Gardens Today
Cambridge Community Gardens Today is a publication of the Cambridge Plant & Garden Club. Its purpose is to document and celebrate the extraordinary variety and character of Cambridge’s 14 Community Gardens, to salute the knowledge and dedication of their Cambridge resident gardeners, and to highlight the importance of these gardens as valuable resources within the City of Cambridge.