In Spring 2023, Unity Gardens funded 8 projects in grants totaling over $10,000 for volunteer-led efforts planting native trees, shrubs, grasses, and perennials planted throughout Anne Arundel County.
Learn more about our Spring 2023 grantee projects!
Annapolis Maritime Museum
The Annapolis Maritime Museum & Park (AMM) received funds from Unity Garden to install a new front welcome garden at AMM’s Park Campus. The welcome garden is located at the entrance of AMM’s new education and event pavilion. The garden was installed by a group of volunteers this Spring.
The new garden is filled with native plants including two beautiful riverbirch trees, gro-low sumac, little henry sweetspires, and switchgrass. The plants were selected to be resistant to deer, which are plentiful in this area. The new garden is wonderful and really helped to create a welcoming environment for the new pavilion.
Broadneck High School Signature Program
Students from the Signature classes at Broadneck High School cleared an area in May, in order to restore an existing native rain garden. While teachers completed the planting portion alongside a Unity Gardens board member, the maintenance of the garden will be handled by students in the Environmental Literacy Program. They will water the plants daily while they get established, and will be responsible for weeding as well as future renovations and additions.
Belvedere Beach Access
On May 20th, residents of Belvedere Beach worked together to plant native plants and trees. These natives were planted in two locations- the Upper Beach access path and the Alameda triangle, an open area space. The Beach Access plants will help control water runoff entering into Cool Spring Cove and help stabilize the area adjacent to the beach access steps. The plants at the Alameda triangle space will provide a native habitat, exemplifying best practices for residents.
Visitors to the areas applaud the efforts of all volunteers, enjoy the view and improved access path to the beach, and are grateful for the efforts of improving both areas.
Chase Lloyd House
The Chase Garden became Bay Wise Certified in 2014, and since that time, the garden team implemented a plan of action focused on replacing and removing invasive plants. With grant funds from this year’s Spring grant cycle, volunteers helped the Chase garden get closer to their goal of having a garden that is 70% native.
Chase garden was open in March for Maryland Day, and it is open to the public Monday-Friday for walk in tours! Check them out!
Severn Grove Improvement Association
Members of the Severn Grove Improvement Association established a new native garden to benefit wildlife, to manage storm water, to enhance the beauty of our common property, and to educate community members about the benefits of native plants.
Severn River Middle School
Severn River Middle School installed a beautiful native garden on Thursday April 20, 2023. The week prior, each 8th grade Science took their classes outside to prepare the garden bed areas. They spent 2 whole days removing some of the deteriorating plants, turning over the soil, and laying mulch outlines so the garden beds were ready to be planted. On their planting day, each 8th grade science class came out to install the new plants and add amendments to the soil where needed, one section at a time. The students also laid natural mulch to help protect the new plants. Staff and volunteers directed students on how to properly plant. All 250 students in 8th grade at SRMS participated in the project!
The three garden areas now provide natural habitats, pollinator plants for butterflies, and food for native wildlife. The aromatherapy garden area provides a calm meditation area for students and staff. The team successfully planted 9 Oakleaf Hydrangeas, 9 Virginia Sweetspire (Little Henry), 9 American Beautyberries, 2 Inkberry Shamrocks, 9 Black Eyed Susans, 22 small Butterfly Weeds, 9 Purple Coneflowers, 2 Blueray Blueberry bushes, 1 Jersey Blueberry bush, Lavender, Sage, Rosemary, Parsley, Thyme, Lemon Thyme, 3 Rhododendrons, and 8 Blue Vervain.
St. Margaret’s Church
In 2022, St Margaret’s Church introduced a new program called “Adopt a Garden”. This program was developed to secure reliable volunteer help for maintaining their native plant landscapes among other things. They identified 12 separate areas on the campus and solicited volunteers to “adopt” them by taking the lead in maintaining and improving each area. To foster pride of ownership, each area is marked by a sign indicating which family or group has adopted the space.
This Spring, 40 volunteers came together to tend to their gardens and install native plants. This helped to enhance the diversity and habitat of landscaped areas on the church campus, and enhance the education of parishioners and visitors on native plants.
Unity by the Bay Church
On a cool and comfortable day in May, 19 volunteers from Unity by the Bay church came together to develop a memorial garden area with native plants that will provide a habit for local wild life and pollinators. In addition, this garden will increase soil depth through root development in order to take some of the pressure off of the very nearby water retention area.