Sweitzer Park Native Garden

L4P started building a community pollinator garden at the Roland B Sweitzer city park in Laurel starting in spring 2021. City Parks and Rec staff removed several stumps from the project site. Volunteers then laid down a layer of cardboard and covered it with deep mulch to smother the grass and weeds. Three months later, a gravel path, sitting stumps, a natural log border, and native flowering plants from donor properties were added. We continue to add plants to help crowd out invasive species, build plant bloom time and color diversity and we encourage neighbors to harvest seeds and take plants when we thin out the garden.

Some of the native blooms include showy sunflower, goldenrod, obedient plant, beebalm, joe pyeweed, butterfly milkweed, coneflower, cup plant, wood aster. These provide habitat and food for pollinators, birds, and other animals, protecting biodiversity.

Many passersby frequently remark on the beauty of the garden, providing a wonderful educational opportunity, as intended, to inspire Laurelites to plant native and live sustainably. We’re protecting biodiversity while enhancing Laurel pride!

A Chronolog to photo document growth and flowering patterns across seasons was then added. Check out how the garden changes over the course of one, and many, years. Take your own photo when you visit and upload it!

We often have volunteer weeding, chopping, planting, thinning and other garden maintenance events. Check out our events page or the calendar to see if one is coming up.