Grow it Green Urban Farm Native Plant Restoration

Grow It Green will restore the more than 800 feet of plantings along the fence lines of the one acre learning and giving Urban Farm. Native flowering plants will be planted and invasive species along the fencing will be removed. We will catalog the plants, and utilize the plants and the pollinators in lessons for the 1000s of students and volunteers that come to the farm. The plants will be planted with the assistance of the Garden Club of Somerset Hills and volunteers of all ages from the local schools/ community. We will need to maintain the area by removing weeds which are hard to identify from the plants at this young stage. We will create a catalog of the plants we chose to help make sure all volunteers and community members joining the staff are removing only weeds as the plants devote their energy to growing strong roots rather than flowers and seeds. We will edit the plantings along the fence lines by adding plants to sparse areas and preventing weeds from taking over. Even other good pollinator plants need to be removed if they will outcompete some of the more desirable species we planted, reducing diversity. We will cut them back and help keep them in check. We will talk about native plants, encourage people to sign the Morris Township Pledge to Plant Native and have the catalog at our annual seed swap and share event in April.