Gardening Is for the Birds

More than just bird feeders, birds need food, shelter, nesting sites and nesting materials to survive.  The Ewing Green Team is extremely excited to invite you to an introductory program on how gardeners can create a bird-friendly backyard, attracting a far wider range of species, using native plants that provide needed food and shelter. 

Join us for a 1 ½ hour workshop on Wednesday, March 30th at 7 pm at the Ewing Senior and Community Center (Zoom alternative may be substituted) and learn how to make simple changes in your garden that will transform it into a year-round haven for birds by providing the essential elements needed for their survival.  Mary Anne Borge, a local naturalist, writer, photographer, and educator, will tell you what you can you do to attract birds to your garden and which plants are best to entice bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects to make their homes with you.  She will also share maintenance techniques that are the most hospitable for these garden visitors and residents.

Mary Anne Borge is the Associate Editor for Butterfly Gardener magazine, a publication of the North American Butterfly Association; an instructor and naturalist at Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve in New Hope, Pennsylvania; a Pennsylvania Master Naturalist, and the team leader for Lambertville Goes Wild. Her photographs have been featured in numerous publications. She shares her love of nature through her writing and photography at the-natural-web.org.

This presentation is a part of a series of programs sponsored by the Ewing Green Team to help gardeners live more sustainably and harmoniously with nature by gardening for wildlife.  And once you’ve created a welcoming haven for local wildlife, we encourage gardeners to certify their properties with the National Wildlife Federation.  The NWF is engaged in a nationwide movement to support local wildlife and restore and reconnect America’s natural spaces through their Garden for Wildlife program.  The Ewing Green Team believes that this is a critical effort and we have enrolled Ewing in their Community Gardening for Wildlife Program.  Every Ewing garden that certifies with the program ups our point tally in the community program and moves us closer to our goal of becoming a NWF certified community. 

We hope that this will be start of a great gardening season for wildlife this spring and for the future!

Event Summary

Date: Wednesday, March 30th
Time: 7pm
Location: Ewing Senior and Community Center, 999 Lower Ferry Rd., Ewing
Cost: Free and open to the public, Masks required.
Presenter: Mary Anne Borge

Identify Common Backyard Birds

Check out this wonderful YouTube video on identifying common backyard birds.  It helps you to identify common wintertime backyard feeder birds and was designed for use by both new and amateur birders.  Visual characteristics and bird calls are provided to enable identification.  Suggested feeder food is provided for some species.

Plant List from Gardens with Buzz Presentation

Wild About Ewing was extremely fortunate to have naturalist, writer, photographer, and educator Mary Anne Borge present to Ewing gardeners. Mary Anne is the Associate Editor for Butterfly Gardener magazine, a publication of the North American Butterfly Association; an instructor and naturalist at Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve in New Hope, Pennsylvania; a Pennsylvania Master Naturalist, and the team leader for Lambertville Goes Wild. Her photographs have been featured in numerous publications.  She shares her love of nature through her writing and photography at the-natural-web.org

On March 25th she gave a presentation at the Ewing Library to a filled room entitled Gardens with Buzz.   Her plant recommendations for gardening for wildlife follows:

Perennials
Common Name Latin Name
Aromatic Aster Symphyotricum oblongifolium
Bee-balm Monarda didyma
Blue False Indigo Baptisia australis
Blue Wood Aster Symphyotricum cordifolium
Bluets Houstonia caerulea
Boneset Eupatorium species
Butterflyweed Asclepias tuberosa
Canada Anemone Anemone canadensis
Canada Violet Viola canadensis
Cardinal-flower Lobelia cardinalis
Cinnamon Fern Osmunda cinnamomea
Common Milkweed Asclepias syriaca
Common Milkweed Asclepias syriaca
Downy Yellow Violet Viola pubescens
Golden Alexander Zizia aurea
Grass-leaved Goldenrod Euthamia graminifolia
Grass-leaved Goldenrod Euthamia graminifolia
Green-headed Coneflower Rudbeckia laciniata
Helen’s Flower Helenium autumnale
Highbush Blueberry Vaccinium corymbosum
Hoary Mountain Mint Pycnanthemum incanum
Indian Hemp Apocynum cannabinum
Jacob’s Ladder Polemonium reptans
Joe-pye-weed Eutrochium purpureum
Lowbush Blueberry Vaccinium angustifolium
New England Aster Symphyotricum novae-angliae
New York Ironweed Vernonia noveboracensis
Purple Giant Hyssop Agastache scrophulariifolia
Shooting Star Dodecatheon meadia
Short-toothed Mountain Mint Pycnanthemum muticum
Short-toothed Mountain Mint Pycnanthemum muticum
Showy Coneflower Rudbeckia fulgida
Spring Beauty Claytonia virginica
Swamp Milkweed Asclepias incarnata
Viola pubescens Viola sororia
Virginia Bluebells Mertensia virginica
Virginia Mountain Mint Pycnanthemum virginianum
Virginia Spiderwort Tradescantia virginiana
Water Hemlock Cicuta bulbifera
White Beardtongue Penstemon digitalis
Wild Bergamot Monarda fistulosa
Wild Bergamot Monarda fistulosa
Wild Columbine Aquilegia canadensis
Wild Geranium Geranium maculatum
Shrubs
Common Name Latin Name
Flowering Dogwood Cornus florida
Gray Dogwood Cornus racemosa
Ninebark Physocarpus opulifolius
Spicebush Lindera benzoin
Wild Black Cherry Prunus serotina
Vines
Common Name Latin Name
Dutchman’s Pipevine Aristolochia macrophylla
Trumpet Honeysuckle Lonicera sempervirens

Gardens with Buzz

Part II of Our Gardening for Wildlife Series

Wild About Ewing! is extremely excited to announce that they will sponsor Part II of an introductory series to the National Wildlife Federation’s Community Wildlife Habitat Project and how gardeners in Ewing are providing much needed wildlife habitat while getting credit for both themselves and their community at the Ewing Branch Library, 61 Scotch Road, Ewing on Monday, March 25th at 7 pm. Mary Anne Borge, a local naturalist, writer, photographer and educator, will tell you what you can you do to attract birds to your garden and which plants are best to entice bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects to make their homes with you. She will also share maintenance techniques that are the most hospitable for these garden visitors and residents.

Mary Anne Borge is a naturalist, writer, photographer, and educator. She is the Associate Editor for Butterfly Gardener magazine, a publication of the North American Butterfly Association; an instructor and naturalist at Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve in New Hope, Pennsylvania; a Pennsylvania Master Naturalist, and the team leader for Lambertville Goes Wild. Her photographs have been featured in numerous publications. She shares her love of nature through her writing and photography at the-natural-web.org.

Part 1 of the series, entitled Gardening for Wildlife in the Suburban Landscape, was presented to the community on February 25th and we were thrilled to see so many interested Ewing gardeners. We hope that this will be start of a great gardening season for wildlife this spring and for the future!

Date: Monday, March 25th
Time: 7pm
Location: Ewing Branch Library, 61 Scotch Road
Cost: Free and open to the public