Within living memory, museums have favored stately, showy, sterile gardens. Expansive lawns were dotted with Asian specimen shrubs and flowers. Now, some museums have reimagined their gardens as an extra exhibit, using native plants to teach visitors about local ecology. In the fall of 2022, the Laurel Museum planted their existing beds with plants native to our region. Jimmy Rogers, garden project manager for Laurel for the Patuxent, will share how the design came together, how the plants function (both structurally and ecologically), and how residents can use the same approaches in their own gardens. This is a Zoom event.

Join us on Zoom on Monday, April 1 at 6:30 pm for updates on projects, events, and opportunities, and strategic discussion of conservation of environmental assets in Laurel.

After our work in the garden, we’ll be heading over to Oliver’s for some fun and drinks. Come out to mingle with your fellow L4Pers or meet us for the first time and see what we’re all about! All our welcome. Hope to see you there!

Come help us get the Sweitzer Park native pollinator garden ready for spring! We’ll be weeding, cutting down stems, dividing, planting, and rearranging. You may even be able to take some plants home, so bring pots if you’re interested. Afterwards, we’ll head to Oliver’s for some St. Patrick’s day fun.

Although we’ll have some supplies, if you have hedge trimmers, weeding tools, or shovels, please bring them. Gardening gloves and work clothes are recommended.

Join us on Zoom on Monday, March 4 at 6:30 pm for updates on projects, events, and opportunities, and strategic discussion of conservation of environmental assets in Laurel.

Join us on Zoom on Monday, February 5 at 6:30 pm for updates on projects, events, and opportunities, and strategic discussion of conservation of environmental assets in Laurel.

Join us on Zoom on Monday, January 8 at 6:30 pm for updates on current projects and plans for L4P in 2024.

Join us on Zoom on Monday, December 4 at 6:30 pm for updates on current projects and plans for L4P in 2024.

Come out to help protect the Patuxent River!

We will be cleaning up litter and cutting invasive vines at Riverfront Park. Choose your own adventure! Or do a little of each!

• We’ll meet at the Laurel Municipal Pool parking lot at Ninth and Main Streets.

• Trash bags will be provided, as well as some tools and gloves, but if you have your own, please bring them.

• Kids are welcome to come with their parents.

• Students are welcome to come for service hours, but you must have your forms at the event for credit.

As a follow-up to our community meeting about livability in Laurel, we’ll be holding a strategic planning session open to anyone who is interested in promoting sustainable development in Laurel, even if you weren’t able to attend the community meeting.

When: Tuesday, November 14. 7:00 — 8:30 pm.

Where: Our Zoom room! Click on the link below to join.

Agenda:

• Review key items from the community meeting.

• Identify what we need to accomplish at the city, county, and state levels, and what our calls to action will be.

• Delegate further tasks needed beyond the meeting.

• Plan how to market to our community for these calls to action

Join us in person at the Laurel Boys and Girls Club/Phelps Center, 701 Montgomery St. Laurel or on Zoom

Laurel for the Patuxent will host a community meeting about the threat of overdevelopment to public health and green spaces in the City of Laurel. We will address solutions to on-going concerns about the City government's suboptimal transparency, notifications, and inclusive public engagement on public health issues including overdevelopment, increasing traffic, lack of green space, destruction of environmental assets, and negative impacts on public safety and livability.

Agenda:

6:00-6:10: Introduction by Laurel for the Patuxent. Impacts of overdevelopment on public and environmental health.

6:10 - 6:35: Katherine Wright, Ward II resident, will present about new proposed developments in Ward II that would replace some of the last remaining large green spaces in Laurel with dense housing which will further increase traffic, crowding and degradation of the environment. You can read Wright's recent article, "City’s Priorities Questioned in Ward 2" in Voices of Laurel, Vol 3, No.4

6:35 - 6:45: Q & A.

6:45 - 7:10: Tom Dernoga, Prince George County District 1 Councilperson and County Council Chair, will address concerns about public engagement on overdevelopment vs smart and sustainable growth, and suggest specific actions and solutions to help residents have greater role in shaping the future of our city.

7:10 - 7:20: Q & A.

7:20 - 7:30: Wrap up and next steps

Please join fellow community members who are committed to a more sustainable and livable Laurel.

Friends of Patuxent present the 2023 Pollinator Festival at the National Wildlife Visitor Center.

This very popular family-friendly event has something for all ages--information on how to attract pollinators to your yard or garden, kids' activities including the release of live monarch butterflies to continue on their incredible migration, live insects, beekeeping demo, pollinator hikes, free native plant giveaways and more.

L4P will have a table at the event. Please stop by!

This event has been postponed due to weather. Check back later for new date.

Tour the Patuxent Refuge Central Tract with the former refuge manager, Brad Knudsen, and learn about the history, ecology, and research of this beloved Laurel treasure.

This event has been postponed due to weather. Check back later for new date.

Join us on Zoom on Monday, September 11 at 6:30 pm to hear Brad Knudsen, former manager of the Patuxent Research Refuge, talk about the history of the National Refuge system.

Sign up for any Saturday this summer to help water our trees in the restoration area of Riverfront Park. You must be able to fill and carry a 5 gallon bucket from the river to the trees. Please bring a bucket if you have one. If we get enough rain during the week, we’ll notify you by text message if the event is cancelled.

Sign up for any Saturday this summer to help water our trees in the restoration area of Riverfront Park. You must be able to fill and carry a 5 gallon bucket from the river to the trees. Please bring a bucket if you have one. If we get enough rain during the week, we’ll notify you by text message if the event is cancelled.

Sign up for any Saturday this summer to help water our trees in the restoration area of Riverfront Park. You must be able to fill and carry a 5 gallon bucket from the river to the trees. Please bring a bucket if you have one. If we get enough rain during the week, we’ll notify you by text message if the event is cancelled.

This summer and fall, Patuxent Triangle HOA is building build a swale to redirect water from our parking lot into the nearby meadow area. We will be building the swale and planting out almost 800 square feet with native plants thanks to a grant from Chesapeake Bay Trust. This will be a beautiful and eco-friendly addition to the other gardens on Montgomery Street.

To kick things off, we need to first prepare the ground in four new beds by smothering the existing grass with arborist wood chips. Please come down and help us for a few hours so we're ready for fall planting!

Things to bring:

Plenty of water

Work clothing and a broad-brimmed hat

Gardening or work gloves

Shovels, pitchforks, and cultivators (we will have some to borrow)

We could also use an extra wheelbarrow!

L4Per Jimmy Rogers is giving a tour of his transformed yard, from turf to native habitat! Come learn all about the process, the plants, and the pollinator protection! The tour is free but you must reserve a spot by clicking below.

L4Per, ReMeadow.org founder, and City Horticulturalist Liz Humes welcomes you to her home to tour her thriving meadow.  Come hear about the process, the plants, and the pollinators.

Join us on Zoom on Monday, July 10th at 6:30 pm to hear about our current projects and upcoming initiatives. New folks are encouraged to come!

Come help us weed the Sweitzer Park pollinator garden. You will learn what is a weed and what to leave in the ground. Plus you can see the amazing flowering plants that are just coming into their high-summer bloom. It’s a great opportunity to earn community service hours for school or Scouts.

Please bring work or garden gloves if you have them. Small weeding tools are helpful but not required. Buckets or other reusable containers are helpful for gathering weeds efficiently. We will have some supplies to loan out.

Tour the Patuxent Refuge Central Tract with the former refuge manager, Brad Knudsen, and learn about the history, ecology, and research of this beloved Laurel treasure.

Join us on Zoom on Monday, June 12th at 6:30 pm to hear Elmer Dengler’s talk:

Twenty Years of Finding the Best Ways to Introduce People to Pollinator Habitat Management as opposed to just a garden of miscellaneous native cultivars that do not address habitat restoration, education, or sustainability in traditional parks and public areas

As a teen, Elmer Dengler participated in insect migration studies, raising and tagging thousands of monarch butterflies including one that traveled from PA to the Gulf of Mexico in 30 days. He received a BS in Environmental Resource Management from Penn State University and began a career with the USDA Soil Conservation Service in 1980 where he managed an office in Montana that focused on sustainable agricultural systems and converted 80,000+ acres of cropland to perennial grassland. He eventually transferred to Maryland where he has converted half his backyard to native pollinator friendly plants.

Elmer has training in Total Quality Management and Teambuilding that he uses to promote collaboration within the greater MD Conservation Partnership. He served as the MD Grassland Specialist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service; concentrating on the use of regionally native grasses for Management Intensive Grazing and helping conventional farms transition to organic production. He developed education programs with the UMD Extension and SARE grants in partnership with Universities, the Rhodale Institute, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

For the past 10 years Elmer has served on the City of Bowie's Green Team, creating pollinator gardens on city land and teaching pollinator needs though both the Green Team and the Bowie-Crofton Garden Club.

He engages the public on pollinator habitat development and monarchs at Patuxent Wildlife Refuge through talks and exhibitions, is a certified Anne Arundel Watershed Steward and key member of the RePollinate Anne Arundel program and leads restoration projects in AA County including conversion of stormwater ponds in Bowie to native pollinator friendly habitat using native plants grown at the USGS Native Bee Lab.

We need about 5 volunteers to help clear a large sycamore tree of thick vines that are threatening it. The tree is at the corner of 216 and Main St., next to the restaurant Red, Hot, and Blue. Please bring gloves, saws, clippers, and loppers and wear long pants to avoid contact with poison ivy.

American Legion Post 60 : 2 Main St., Laurel

Join Laurel for the Patuxent for our final spring planting at the new native garden at the Laurel American Legion Post. We will be planting warm season grasses (broomsedge) that will promote upright growth among our taller plants, and also provide cover for wildlife. We will also be returning the mulch to the bed for the summer.

Please bring any garden gloves, shovels, iron rakes, and similar tools that you have. We will have a few we can loan out.

Stop by the L4P booth to meet some of our members and partner organizations, grab some free native plants, and learn about our work in the community and how you can help!

Join us on Zoom on Monday, April 3 at 6:30 pm to hear about our projects, discuss upcoming events and issues of concern and opportunity in the community.  Click HERE to join the meeting.

Come learn about pollinators and their key role in our environment! Make a cardboard relief print or a rubber stamp print to take home.

This is a free workshop presented by the City of Laurel Arts Council and Laurel for the Patuxent. for ages 7 & up with materials and instruction provided.

Location: Laurel Municipal Pool Meeting Room- 9th & Main Street

Come learn about pollinators and their key role in our environment! Make a cardboard relief print or a rubber stamp print to take home.

This is a free workshop presented by the City of Laurel Arts Council and Laurel for the Patuxent. for ages 7 & up with materials and instruction provided.

A second workshop will take place at 3 pm.

Location: Laurel Municipal Pool Meeting Room- 9th & Main Street