Newsletter article – Please see the short article at the bottom of this update and send it out via any newsletter or social media you can think of.
Volunteer potluck picnic Saturday, August 25 6:30 pm - If you have volunteered or just might like to volunteer, come celebrate the Plant NOVA Natives campaign. We will gather at the Falls Church home of Elisa Meara, who is a professional native plant landscaper, so you know it will be beautiful! She will show us her new rain garden and mini-meadow, and we’ll get to sit around her fire pit as dusk falls and share native plant success stories. RSVP here.
Progress at garden centers – Teams of volunteers put ‘NoVA Native’ and ‘Virginia Native’ stickers on the plants at all three Merrifield Garden Centers and conducted mini-tours there during Pollinator Week in June. Other volunteers continue to update the stickers at all eight Northern Virginia locations of Meadows Farms, although we still need volunteers for the Manassas location and could use more help at Great Falls and Woodbridge. Please email plantnovantives@gmail.com if you can help.
Other events in need of volunteers - Please sign up here. More opportunities will be posted as we nail them down.
9/22 Green Spring Garden Fall Garden Day – Dress up as a pollinator with a sign that says “Ask me about native plants.” Give out cards telling people how to find our Guide.
9/23 Manassas Latino Festival – Spanish-speaking volunteers needed.
9/23 NatureFest – Runnymede Park, Herndon. Engage with kids - we have tons of ideas for you.
9/29 Northern Alexandria Native Plant Sale. Sell Guides.
Social media volunteers needed – Social media is an important outreach tool for our campaign. Volunteers are needed help us post content – email plantnovanatives@gmail.com if you can volunteer. (Anyone can post replies, which is also very helpful for increasing our reach.)
Engage your neighbors in a community project. Would you like to engage your neighbors in the home habitat movement? Help pilot an Audubon-at-Home certification program for your neighborhood by organizing a “Habitat-in-Training” community, in which 60% of residents commit to plant at least one native plant as the first step toward eventual Audubon-at-Home certification for the community as a whole. We are seeking volunteers who can help us figure out how to create a fun and easy program. Click here for details of this work in progress, and email plantnovanatives@gmail.com if you are interested.
Help change your county or city policies – We would like to build a list of people who may be available to attend meetings or public hearings to help public officials formulate habitat-friendly jurisdictions. Nothing would be asked of you right now; we just want to be ready if a hearing is being held in your particular district.
Fall plant sales are coming – Click here to see the ones we know of so far, or check our event calendar. Fall is for planting!
Web person needed - The Wix software is user friendly. The work consists of occasional updates to existing pages and creation of new pages using text and photos which will be provided. We just need you to be familiar enough with basic computer software to be able to work independently fairly quickly.
Upcoming educational event
September 12, 7:30 pm –Chickadees and Native Plants talk. Huntley Meadows.
T-Shirts for Volunteering – If you would like a T-shirt that identifies you as a volunteer, we have created a design that says “Ask me about native plants” on both sides. You can order one in our CafePress store. (We make no profit from these sales.)
Plugs for sale – Elisa Meara’s landscaping company has started to sell native plant species in plug size in smaller quantities than those provided in full trays. The delivery is included with the purchase, and they can order the species that are not available in the current inventory. All the details are in this link.
Email: info@nativeplantld.com
This month’s newsletter article – Please reprint or link to this article on our blog, which includes previous articles in this series.