Back in COVID times, many of us discovered new activities in quarantine. Some of us learned a new craft or tended sourdough cultures, while others turned to outdoor pursuits. I was decidedly in the second camp; I remember posting a photo of my first hellebores poking up from the snow in March 2020 with the caption, “Commune with plants, not people.”
Communing with people at a distance was fine, though. It was in this way that a group of native-plant enthusiasts in Belmont and neighboring towns met, exchanging tips and ideas online and discussing how they could promote native plants in the community at large. At first, they talked about a “friendly competition” to see which town could add the most native gardens to a regional map. The discussion soon turned to collaboration over competition, but the idea of mapping native gardens remained.
The COVID-era Zoom meetings led to the founding of the Mystic Charles Pollinator Pathways Group, named for the two rivers bounding its focus area. The steering committee includes Kelly Schlabach, Jean Devine and Sarah Wang from Belmont, as well as Kim DeAndrade from Medford and Brucie Moulton from Arlington. The group hosts educational and inspirational talks (both online and in-person) several times a year, runs a Facebook page with close to 900 followers, and pursues a two-pronged mission with tangible outreach activities. First, the group seeks to increase the presence of native plants by sharing seeds with the public; second, it hopes to support the full range of native pollinators (including butterflies, moths, bees, beetles, hoverflies and hummingbirds) by building out a network of public and private native gardens on a regional map. The group aims to add clusters of gardens spaced close enough that even the smallest pollinator bees can travel between them. The map and instructions for how to add your garden to it can be found at tiny.cc/MCmap.
Sharing seeds of native plants is a multi-step process that the group enjoys teaching others through a series of fall and winter workshops on collecting, cleaning, packaging and sowing. Cleaning seeds means removing plant matter such as the spent flower parts, seed pods, fluff and chaff; packaging involves measuring out seeds (in the right amounts for sowing in a gallon milk jug) and adding them to tiny envelopes labeled with species info and growing conditions. You can find these seed packets at Mass Audubon’s Habitat Education Center and Wildlife Sanctuary at 10 Juniper Road, at various local libraries (including Belmont, in the Community Classroom upstairs), and in a few roadside stands (think “Little Free Library” but for seeds).
What happens next is winter sowing, from the winter solstice through February. For anyone interested, the group has prepared instructions at tiny.cc/seedsowing. My pre-game activity on Super Bowl Sunday was attending a workshop in the ballroom at Habitat, along with about 25 others ranging in age from teens to 70s. The sun poured through the windows from the surrounding snowscape as we made mini-greenhouses in which to germinate our seeds. We cut plastic milk jugs (pre-drilled at the base with drainage holes) nearly in half, leaving the last couple of inches so the top can hinge open later in spring, then filled the base with pre-moistened, high-quality potting soil and tamped it down. Next, we queued up at the seed packet table to choose plants that would work in our gardens (sun/shade, wet/dry). We scattered the seeds on top of the soil, sprinkled a bit more soil and water on top, then sealed our jugs around the middle with duct tape.
Now comes the easy part: waiting. The jugs protect the seeds and seedlings from becoming bird and rabbit food while retaining moisture and heat. They stay outside in partial to full sun, watered by snow and rain, and exposed to cold (for many native plants, this is a requirement for germination to be triggered). By June, the seedlings will be ready for transplanting using the “hunk of seedlings” or “brownie pan” method: either scoop up several large spoonfuls or cut through the soil like you would a pan of brownies and remove nine or so squares for planting.
I look forward to adding buttonbush, spotted bee balm, woodland sunflower and boneset to my garden this summer, and I hope you will join me in adding a few native plants to yours.
Jenny has been gardening in Belmont since 2001 and became a member of the Belmont Garden Club in 2019. From 2010 to 2013, she was the volunteer editor for the Belmont Farmers’ Market newsletter, “Roots & Sprouts.” As a Garden Gems columnist, she is excited to delve into Belmont’s horticultural history and current green spaces and share tips from local experts on diverse aspects of gardening and related pursuits.