This year Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy’s Spring Native Plant Sale takes place on April 22 — Earth Day. What better way to celebrate Earth Day than to buy native plants, plant them in your yard and encourage members of your community to do the same.
As more and more people are realizing, planting natives can make a difference by helping to restore healthy ecosystems that benefit both humans and wildlife. Adding natives to your garden is a good first step. If your neighbors do the same, that’s even better. The more natives planted, the more habitat there is for pollinators, birds and other wildlife.
Can you help us get the word out about natives and the Native Plant Sale? If you live in a HOA or are part of another community association, you have a ready-made audience for promoting the Sale.
Here are a few ideas for helping us promote the Native Plant Sale. Does your community center have an old-fashioned bulletin board where you can post an event flyer? Then you can download and print a flyer to put up. If your HOA has a Facebook group, you can use this image and link it to the event page on the website: https://loudounwildlife.org/event/spring-native-plant-sale/. We’ll have a number of posts on Loudoun Wildlife’s Facebook page about the Sale, so be sure to share them as well. Other social media platforms and email lists are also good ways to promote the Sale.
If you or your neighbors have little or no experience with gardening with natives, the Sale can be a good place to start. For one thing, you can see lots of great native plants in one place. Even better, you can get advice on choosing the right plants for your garden from the nursery owners and knowledgeable volunteers. The Loudoun Wildlife booth will have resources on native plants, including the Native Plants for Northern Virginia guide.
Come and enjoy Earth Day with us and bring home some beautiful native plants.