Achillea millefolium, a pink yarrow; echinacea purpurea, also known as purple coneflower; liatris spicata, a fuzzy, clump-forming spike; and solidago nemoralis, or yellow goldenrod, are just a few of the native plants the Bellport Garden Club installed in the side gardens of the Milk House, located on the Bellport-Brookhaven Historical Society’s Post-Crowell House grounds last week.

(Don’t be surprised if you start seeing bees and birds doing somersaults here.)

Last year, the BGC decided to plant native gardens. They reached out to ReWild Long Island, which promotes sustainable landscaping by designing with native and pollinator-friendly plants, and applied to their ReWild Garden Program to create two native gardens at Post-Crowell. They were accepted. 

Members recently sat with the Advance to talk about their projects.

“They not only suggest; they pay for the plants,” explained Swazi Clarity of the 24 that went in the soil, about $800 worth. While free advice, design help, and free irrigation are also part of ReWild Long Island’s helping hand, a two-year commitment on the part of the recipient is part of the deal, clearing the land for the plants and tending them. A specialist came to the site to advise. 

“This is part of our commitment to be kinder to nature,” said vice president Mary Butler. “The Garden Club was working on promoting native plants, and the Bellport Environmental Committee moved their emphasis to native plants and no pesticides.”

Why native plants? 

Think of them as a kind of mothers’ milk: a natural, nutritious, continual food source that birds and insects co-evolved with. Nonnative plants, while decorative, are depleted of the nutrients local birds and insects require. So, these populations crash. Not good for us. Noxious herbicides and pesticides kill friendly insects, necessary for a bird’s meal. (Baby birds need soft insects to survive.) Through water runoff, these applications, plus fertilizers, wind up in the bay and create algae blooms, killing fish, underwater greens, and ultimately other wildlife.

And native plants require little watering and maintenance.

The group did their homework. They visited Bayport Flower Houses and spoke with owner Karl Auwaerter on how to plant small native gardens; they also contacted the Suffolk Alliance for Pollinators at Cornell Cooperative Extension Suffolk County. That group was especially excited.

Call it a concerted effort.  Some of the Garden Club volunteers are on the board of CEED down the road, as well as the village Environmental Committee. 

Environmental efforts in this village have—no pun intended—blossomed this year, with the village’s Environmental Committee holding its first forum in March, then an environment exhibit directly after the forum at the BBHS, and the 1000 Yards initiative and Tree City announcement on Earth Day. 

The historic nature of the project appealed to ReWild Long Island, said Garden Club member Jennifer Vorbach. The Post-Crowell House dates back to 1833 and is the centerpiece of the 2-acre property, with several smaller historic buildings on it. “A lot of people walk through the grounds, so it has an educational mission,” Vorbach said.

The BBHS has been collaborating with the Garden Club for years, said Joan Kaelin, BBHS president. But now, “it provides a teaching garden,” she said. 

What most people don’t know is that the Garden Club pays for new trees at $300 a pop and sprays ash trees at $500 a treatment. (Donations are appreciated. You can do that now via www.bellportgardenclub.com. It just debuted.)

Garden Club volunteers purchase and plant the blooms you see in the village flower boxes. Two high school students are paid to water them weekly, which costs $2,000 a season; two $500 awards to students based on an essay are also provided.

Kids do get a kick out of growing things naturally when you start them young.

“We went to Frank P. Long to encourage fourth graders to raise container beds,” added Vorbach. “These fourth graders are beside themselves when they plant seeds and a week later, the seeds sprout up.”