How does our garden grow? With much help and many hands!

If you have visited us here at St. Mary’s County Arts Council since April 2024, you may have noticed a beautiful addition!

Originally a dry area of sparse bushes alongside empty dirt patches, our landscape was long overdue for a much needed overhaul.

Formerly host to dry prickly bushes, discarded cigarette butts, and the more than occasional doggy doo doo, the front of our building has been completely transformed!

Our beautiful space is now alive and full of fresh greenery, colorful flowers, and lovely winged creatures.

We are beyond grateful to the Chesapeake Bay Trust for funding this community garden through the Chesapeake Conservation and Climate Corps (Southern Maryland Resource Conservation & Development) Mini-Grant program.

According to Charlie Olmsted, a Chesapeake Conservation and Climate Corps member, the plant selection was based on a variety of factors:

“We wanted different heights, different bloom times, different colors, and we wanted to attract a diversity of pollinator species. The bayberry shrub (morella pennsylvanica) closer to the entrance has nitrogen fixing abilities which allows it to survive in poor conditions.

Other plants include common milkweed, creeping phlox, scarlett bee balm, slender mountain mint, golden rod, New England Aster, false indigo, coneflower, tickseed, and Great blue Lobelia. All told, these plants provide nectar for butterflies, bees, and moths, and the milkweed provides a source of food for monarch caterpillars during the larval stage.”

Native plants require less water, fertilizer, and maintenance than non-native species. We had no need for any pesticides or herbicides.

This project was made possible with the assistance of multiple community partners. St. Mary’s County Arts Council would like to extend a special shout out to Charlie Olmsted and Caroline King from the RC&D for performing the plant selection, site planning, and follow up maintenance.

Check out our photos and progress below!