Woodland gardens for wildlife
Walking on the wild side
This endangered wood turtle (Glyptemys insculpta) is pretty excited about our new native woodland garden programs.
Woodland wildlife needs native plants. In partnership with our friends at Blue Ridge Wildlife Center (BRWC), Sustainability Matters is spreading the word…and the concrete how-to on cultivating a native woodland garden or nurturing the woods you already have.
We’re helping BRWC design and install a native demonstration garden on their Wildlife Walk, home of their Wildlife Education Ambassadors (former patients whose injuries made them non-releasable). The garden will feature native fruiting and flowering shrubs and understory trees including spicebush (Lindera benzoin), pawpaw (Asimina triloba), bladdernut (Staphylea trifolia) and beautyberry (Callicarpa americana), as well as a wide range of spring ephemerals like the ones shown here, and later season bloomers such as woodland sunflower (Helianthus divaricatus) and bear’s foot (Smallanthus uvedalia).
This April, we’re also co-hosting a free webinar, Native Gardens for our Woodland Neighbors, so sign up to learn woodland garden tips and tricks from us, and meet some of BRWC’s adorable ambassadors, live on Zoom! If you’ve always wanted to discuss gardening with an opossum, now is your time.
Working on this project has been a blast. It’s not every day you get photobombed by a bald eagle. That’s Jefferson there in the background, supervising the garden planning.
