The Garden Club of Englewood Adds Native Shrubs to Englewood Grove Garden in Palisades Interstate Park
GCA Partners4Plants Grant Funds Garden Restoration in New Jersey Park
_olrwehv9nyu7.jpg)
January 29, 2025
By: Adrienne Anderson
For over 75 years, Garden Club of Englewood (GCE) has supported Palisades Interstate Park (PIP), a National Historic Landmark with 2,500 acres of wild Hudson River shoreline, uplands, and cliffs in New Jersey. Most recently, GCE received a GCA Partners4Plants (P4P) grant to plant native species at an on-going project at Englewood Grove Garden (EGG) in PIP.
In 2021, after storm damage from Hurricane Ida, GCE helped fund fallen tree removal through a $10,000 GCA Restoration Initiative grant at PIP. In 2023, GCE members planted nearly 1000 plugs including fern varieties, cranesbill (Geranium maculatum), foam flower (Tiarella cordifolia), wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis), two sedges (Carex amphibola and Carex rosea), woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata) and creeping phlox (Phlox stolonifera).
Last fall, funded by a GCA P4P, GCE added 23 native shrubs to EGG. Along with the PIP Trail Crew, GCE members dug the rocky soil to plant black chokecherry (Aronia melanocarpa), sweet fern (Comptonia peregrina), Ozark and common witchhazel (Hamamelis vernalis and virginiana), inkberry (Ilex glabra ‘compacta’), winterberry (Ilex verticillaster), and fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica ‘gro low’).
GCE was assisted by high school intern volunteers from Flat Rock Nature Center to help surround the new shrubs with fencing and tree watering bags to help establish the plantings.
The GCA’s Restoration Initiative provides funds for landscape restoration and conservation projects in communities devastated by natural disasters. The GCA’s P4P grants facilitate hands-on projects between GCA clubs and public land managers. These grants are great examples of GCE's community involvement in conservation efforts and the importance of partnerships to achieve conservation goals.