I have had several things going on with the Georgia Native Plant Society. As there are different “mini-organizations” within GNPS or other partners, I kind of get the opportunity to volunteer with many of them. First of all, I returned to the Stone Mountain Propagation Project to separate the growing native species into smaller pots. In a way, it is quite stress-relieving. These species, commonly known as river oats, were placed into small cells to grow first. As they had grown since August and were becoming too big for their cells, we took them out and separated the roots to put into other containers, doubling the amount of river oats. This took some hack job as we used scissors and even a saw at one point to separate the roots. This taught me that I seriously underestimated the strength of plants. Kelley, who is the manager of SMPP allowed volunteers to take home some flowers as well. I planted them in my frontyard and hope to see some wonderful plants soon!
I next volunteered at the Trees Atlanta native plant sale. All the funds from this event go to funding classes hosted by Trees Atlanta. I helped find plants as cars pulled up with the list of what they had ordered online. One of the buyers bought 250 plants. It took two days to get all his plants into his minivan; he lived 70 miles away and he was willing to drive almost 300 miles for all these plants. The last two pictures were some of the plethora of plants being sold. The last one in the crate was a foam flower that was a special order for someone.
Lastly, I volunteered at the Herbert Taylor Park last Saturday. I got to shovel out invasive species next to a walking trail. Most of the patch was already cleared out by a 90-year old man who lived next to the park. Seeing his work was amazing as I saw yellow flowers from a native species sticking out throughout that cleared-out patch; our goal was to continue to clear the patch to allow trail walkers to see the stream that ran through the park. When we first started digging, I saw many small invasive plants and a couple of growing trees. However, two hours into shoveling, I came across tall trees with large roots that we had to remove. I was able to use a tree wrench to dig the tree roots from the soil. I got to carry many trees as we threw them to the side for birds to use as nesting material.
Finally, speakers from GNPS came over to the Honors College to discuss with students about native planting. It was a great educative event. Even I learned more things than I was expecting to. Did you know that leaving the lights on outside negatively affects plant growth?
Volunteering with GNPS has been a great opportunity. I have learned a lot about native species that I will keep in mind for a long time. I hope that I can continue to teach other members of my community, friends and family the importance of planting native.
P.S. These are some photos I sneaked in (with permission). The first one is from SMPP; this is one of the species that I separated into other pots. The second and third are from the Trees Atlanta plant sale.
Hi Sheryl,
It is so great to see what you have done at Georgia Native Plant Society. Being able to volunteer at many mini-organization definitely gave you a vast of opportunities to encounter many people and retrieve a lot of knowledge. It sounds like such an incredible experience to exposure yourself to different activities in the nature. Can’t wait for your upcoming project.
Mina
Hi Sheryl,
Your post is very informative. It sounds like those river oats are very healthy since their roots were giving you so much trouble. 250 plants are a lot for one order! I wonder how those organizations manage to grow so many plants. Maybe they have regular staff that handle the bulk of the work and volunteers who assist during big events.
Volunteering at the native plant sale sounds so much fun! I would love to work with plants but I’m allergic to pollen so I try to avoid them overall. However, I am glad to be able to read your experience working with native plants, as well as taking care of invasive species. Not too many people are aware of the consequences of invasive species so I am excited to hear it from your volunteer experience. Great post 🙂
Hello! I think that is awesome that you were able to help with many different organizations because of the GNPS! The plant sale at trees Atlanta was very interesting to hear about and learning about how people are so invested in growing different native and as well as other plants for their homes. The volunteering at Herbert Taylor Park seemed quite interesting as well and being able to clear the path and take out some native plants must be hard work but relieving allowing native plants to grow. Learning about native plants are importance an the impact they have to the community and how we can protect them is something that a lot of people should learn and I’m glad you had a great time volunteering! I am exited to see your presentation/project!
Hi! It sounds like you have been having a lot of fun with your organization and I am so happy to hear that! It seems like you started volunteering at the perfect time with all that they have going on both in and around our community. I have heard nothing but incredible things about Trees Atlanta so I am so happy to hear that GNPS is helping with events to raise money for them. Also shout out to the 90 year old man who was putting in some serious labor for Herbert Taylor Park!
Hi! It is so cool you get to volunteer with so many “mini” organizations while volunteering with your partner. I had no idea that leaving lights on negatively affects plant growth. I have been learning about how light pollution negatively affects migrating birds. It is so crazy how much even our lights change the natural environment around us. I wish more people were aware of how harmful light pollution is!