Posted: March 8, 2022
The Master Gardeners of Lehigh and Northampton Counties have recently started the project Homegrown National Park, which is a nationwide grassroots initiative by Doug Tallamy to plant more natives.
The number of registered homeowners on the map in the two counties is disproportionate to the interest in native landscaping and plants in the Lehigh Valley for the simple reason that people don't know about it. Master Gardeners are in a key position to coordinate the effort to get more homeowners on the map of the Homegrown National Park.
As a first step, the Master Gardeners are in the process of creating an online Native Plant Directory for the Lehigh Valley that lists all the native plant resources and players in the area, such as nurseries, parks with native plantings, organizations, online gardening groups on social media, etc. This information is scattered and often outdated and there is no single repository--a gap that the Master Gardeners are aiming to fill.
The Master Gardeners will keep track of new signups on the map and release the latest numbers of sign-ups on social media, thereby monitoring the progress and sharing any milestones.
