Our field trip to the Greenbelt Native Plant Center
Thanks to all who joined our field trip last Friday, and especially to Tim and Heather at the Greenbelt Native Plant Center for so graciously guiding us through all that the Center does. They gave us a history of the site (which was formerly the Mohlenoff family farm, itself a storied place) and its operations, explained their Foundation Seed production, soil preparation, seed cleaning, storage and banking, as well as greenhouse operations. They even let us play with the new litter of kittens scurrying around the greenhouse. We were impressed, as always, by how committed this staff is to the ideals of native ecology—the GNPC really is a mission-driven operation, focused on supporting the proliferation of locally-derived, genetically diverse populations of native plants in the New York City area. Our flickr photo set from their generous tour is here.
