🌼 CALL FOR ARTISTS! 🎨
The LES Ecology Center and @makemeadows are curating a two-month exhibition that reimagines a community garden as a living gallery where art and ecology come together. The exhibition celebrates the diversity of urban nature and invites New Yorkers to take a closer look at native plants that help support a healthy, thriving garden. Often overlooked or removed, these plants play an important role in feeding pollinators, improving soil, and creating habitat for urban wildlife.
Set within a community garden, artists are invited to respond to the site as both setting and collaborator. Proposals should consider native plant life, seasonal change, and the relationships between plants, people, and place. Projects may evolve over time through weathering, growth, decay, or interaction (embracing the changing nature of the garden) or be designed to withstand outdoor conditions over the course of the exhibition.
We are particularly interested in artists whose work:
🌳 Engages with the environment materially or conceptually
🧠 Reflects or responds to ecological processes
🍂 Incorporates change over time
🧘 Invites audience interaction or quiet contemplation
Submit your proposal at the link in our bio!
𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞: The majestic Cardinal Flower is a herbaceous perennial whose common name is in reference to the red robes worn by Roman Catholic cardinals.
Indigenous communities have many medicinal uses for Cardinal Flower. The Iroquois used it to treat fever sores, cramps, upset stomachs and added to other medicines to give them more strength. The Delaware used an infusion of the roots to treat typhoid. And the Pawnee used the roots and flowers of cardinal flower in the composition of a love charm.
In addition to its medicinal properties, it attracts hummingbirds and butterflies making it a welcome addition to a pollinator garden.
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#makemeadows #nativeplants #nativegardening
🌼 𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝘂𝗽 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗮𝘄𝗻𝗺𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿—𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂, 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝘆. 🌼
Join the #NoMowMay movement and give pollinators a fighting chance. It is literally the least you can do to support pollinators, biodiversity, and your local ecosystem. Is it enough? Nah, but it’s a start. Let your lawn grow wild and see what magic pops up—who knows, maybe May is the beginning of your meadow era? 🌼🐝 ✨ #NoMowMay #letitgrow #MakeMeadows
See link in profile for more resources!
We had the pleasure of chatting with Travis Mitchell of @beegoodlandscape who is based in our home town of Gainesville, Florida.
Bee Good Landscape specializes in nature-friendly landscaping services (with a focus on edible and native plants) but also provides regular lawn and yard services using quiet electric equipment. You can also purchase native plants through their website—how cool!
It's wonderful to see the shift in lawn beauty standards happening, and are thankful that local companies like Bee Good for helping make that shift more attainable.
Design: @gandergrams
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#makemeadows #rewildingwith #nativelandscaping
Wow, gardening really is a metaphor for life, huh? Nothing makes us feel more present and connected to the world around us than tending to plants.
Art by the incredible @_jakeforeman
Words by @beccycandice
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#makemeadows #gardening
Why are meadows the best hope we have against global warming? Beyond using less gasoline, water, money, and time than the leading alternative (lawns), they actively help draw carbon from the atmosphere and store it underground. This is called carbon sequestration, and it’s essential for cooling our planet!
Source: Ecosystems Scientific Journal, USDA
Design: @gandergrams
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#makemeadows #carbonsequestration #nature #lawnstomeadows #ecosystems #nativeplants #climateaction
This gorgeous traditional Penobscot barrel-form basket by award winning basket maker Theresa Secord is part of the artist’s Climate Change series and was recently acquired into the @mfaboston collection.
Though modeled on historical utilitarian examples, each color represents elements of Maine’s landscape that have been impacted by climate change. Green and natural ash color represent the endangered milkweeds. Orange folds evoke monarch butterflies alighting on the milkweed plants now being edged out in Maine by invasive plants creeping farther to the north, and the monarch’s critical caterpillar stage is shown through the basket’s striping.
Source: @michellemillarfisher
Design: @gandergrams
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#makemeadows #monarch #climatechange #basketweaving
Next up in our Common Host Plant for Butterflies and Moths series, we take a look at the beautiful flora that keep the Great Plains whirring with some of our favorite pollinators. Spanning from the US Canadian border all the way down to the southern tip of Texas, the Great Plains is home to trees and shrubs like Black Cherry and Fragrant Sumac and flowering perennials like the Blazing Star.
Though bees, bumblebees in particular, are the best documented pollinators of the region, the plants of The Great Plains host other pollinators including butterflies, moths, birds, bats, beetles and ants.
Habitat loss is one of the largest threats facing Great Plains pollinators, so if you call this region home, consider planting some of these host plants!
Source: National Wildlife Foundation & University of Delaware
Design: @gandergrams
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#makemeadows #hostplants #butterflygarden #butterflyfood #greatplains
Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) is an excellent addition to your garden due to its striking, showy flowers that range from white to deep red, blooming in late spring to early summer. This native plant is well-adapted to local climates, making it resilient and low-maintenance. Its evergreen foliage provides year-round visual interest, while its flowers attract pollinators and support local wildlife. Thriving in partial to full shade, Mountain Laurel is perfect for areas with limited sunlight, and its root system helps stabilize soil, making it ideal for slopes and erosion control.
Design: @gandergrams
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#makemeadows #mountainlaurel #nativegardening
Excessive water use, pesticide contamination and the eradication of vital native plants 😵💫 These are all symptoms of America’s unique obsession with lawns.
In ‘The Lawn: A History of an American Obsession’, Virginia Scott Jenkins explores the origin of the front lawn, the birth of the multibillion-dollar lawn-care industry, and sustainable alternatives to lawn-mania.
Design: @gandergrams
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#makemeadows #killyourlawn
Anise hyssop is a versatile provider for humans, animals and insects alike. Due to its extra long blooming season, it’s widely considered one of the premier pollinator feeders for hummingbirds, butterflies, bumblebees, honey bees, carpenter bees, and night flying moths.
It’s native to much of north-central and northern North America and is tolerant of both drought and deer. Its flowers bloom roughly from June to September, and one plant can yield more than 90,000 individual bright lavender flowers, making it a vibrant addition to any garden space.
Design: @gandergrams
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#makemeadows #nativegardening #pollinatorgarden #hyssop
Meet Clark De-Long, Co-owner of @delmarvanativeplants ! Clark is a veteran horticulturist with specialty in the cultivation of native plant species, Spartina alterniflora (smooth cordgrass) and Spartina patens (salt meadow hay) in particular.
In his work with Delmarva Native Plants, he aims to protect and restore Mid-Atlantic plant and wildlife habitats that have been damaged by human activity. Follow both Clark and Delmarva for more info about preserving native flora.
Design: @gandergrams
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#makemeadows #companionplanting #nativegardening
