FRANKLIN PARK is ON THE MAP! Homegrown National Park
If you plant them (native species)…
they will come (birds, bees, and butterflies)!
The April 11 launch of Homegrown National Park in the Franklin Park area was a big success. To date, homeowners have logged 110,344 square feet - more than 2.5 acres - of native plantings and natural forest on their private properties!
Join in and make our neighborhood - the Franklin Park area - a leader on the Homegrown National Park for the Northern Virginia.
What is Homegrown National Park? A national challenge to homeowners, property owners, land managers, farmers, and anyone with some soil to plant in to extend our national parks into our yards, communities, and surrounding lands by planting native and removing invasive species.
Why is it important to plant natives? They help reverse the climate crisis by restoring biodiversity and by providing habitat for bees, birds, and butterflies.
Pollinators are essential to a thriving local ecology. Some bees can travel up to ten miles a day. A bee is seen here collecting pollen from Virginia Sweetspire (Itea virginica).
How can you participate? 1) Take a rough count of native plants on your property. 2) Go to ‘Get on the Map!' to start an account with Homegrown National Park. 3) Log in the number of square feet of natives you already have OR the number of square feet you plan to plant. If your property includes natural forest, you can include that. EASY!
Who can you contact if you have questions or need suggestions for what natives to plant? You may contact Carolyn Rapp at cfrapp@att.net. After you log your number of square feet on the Homegrown National Park site, please send it to Carolyn Rapp, who is keeping track of the Franklin Park acreage.
Please join us in this exciting challenge to make our beautiful Franklin Park area a bridge to a healthy future.
“In the past, we have asked one thing of our gardens: that they be pretty. Now they have to support life, sequester carbon, feed pollinators and manage water.”
Doug Tallamy, Entomologist, Author, Founder of Homegrown National Park
Amid a sea of Brown-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia triloba) a Goldfinch is perched atop a Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea). Though native to the Midwestern U.S., Purple Coneflower has been widely cultivated in the mid-Atlantic region and is a favorite of gardeners, pollinators, and Goldfinches!