Prioritizing native plants aligns with MCF’s commitment to conserve and steward natural habitats and preserved lands. As we celebrate New Jersey Native Plants Month, we are highlighting our projects and collaborative efforts involving native plants in Monmouth County. We are also sharing helpful resources and perspectives from our partners and team with you.
Background
Since 2021, Native Plant Month has been celebrated across the United States, thanks to a federal resolution passed each year. During the month of April, people and organizations plant native trees, shrubs, perennials, vines and grasses; plan educational events; host hands-on workshops; remove non-native, invasive plants so native plants can thrive; and restore areas with native habitats to benefit wildlife and pollinators like birds, bees, and butterflies.
All 50 states and Washington D.C. have passed native plant legislation, including our Garden State, which has recognized New Jersey Native Plants Month each April for the past three years. One of MCF’s more recent partners, the Rumson Garden Club (RCG), played an important role in the annual designation.
“Rumson Garden Club members along with Club members from the other ten Garden Club of America clubs in New Jersey successfully lobbied to establish April as a statewide Native Plants Month in 2023. Using the month of April to spread the word on the value and many benefits of native plants, we hope to encourage the cultivation of natives as they are low maintenance, conserve water, support pollinators and birds, and control erosion,” said Susan Olson, Rumson Garden Club President.
Native Plant Collaborations
MCF’s Scudder Preserve, Middletown, NJ
Scudder Preserve Pond. Photo by Kevin Knecht.
Just last week, MCF just received word that the American Water Charitable Foundation awarded us a 2025 Water and Environment grant to install three bioswales with native plants around the Scudder Preserve pond and to conduct a related education program. We will be collaborating with the Native Plant Society of New Jersey – Monmouth County chapter on this project, demonstrating how the use of green infrastructure like bioswales, rain gardens, and native plants better our environment.
We are also working with our frequent collaborator, Jason Goldman with Flower to the People, to design and install a pollinator garden at the Scudder Preserve. The project was generously funded by Trudy and Charlie Parton.
Efforts like these are part of our long-term effort to restore and enhance Scudder Preserve’s ecology and demonstrate restorative, sustainable practices to the public since taking over ownership of the natural site in April 2024.
Edgemere Park, Sea Girt, NJ
Edgemere Park Pollinator Garden. Photos courtesy of Sea Girt Conservancy.
MCF secured two anonymous grants totaling $15,000 through the National Philanthropic Trust in 2022 and 2023 to support a new pollinator garden constructed at Edgemere Park in the Borough of Sea Girt. Led by the Sea Girt Conservancy, the 9,600-sq.ft. garden was completed in spring 2024 to provide valuable sources of food, nectar, water, protection, and larval host plants for pollinators. Native pollinator plants, a walkway, benches, educational and interpretive signage, and bird and pollinator feeders comprise the garden in the 2.69-acre park.
Thanks to this grant support, the garden is irrigated using well water on site and protected with deer fencing. The garden is reintroducing native plants in place of harmful, non-native invasives that were choking out specimen trees and other plants – creating a sustainable, much-needed ecosystem for various types of species. As the Sea Girt Conservancy executes its Strategic Landscape Plan for Edgemere Park and improvements continue to be made, the pollinator garden serves as its centerpiece.
Jackson Woods Park, Long Branch, NJ
Rumson Garden Club’s Native Plant Garden at Jackson Woods Park. Photo by Karen Keene.
Rumson Garden Club Members with Friends of Jackson Woods’ Founder, Kathy Buchan (center). Photo courtesy of Friends of Jackson Woods.
MCF staff connected Rumson Garden Club (RCG) leadership with the Friends of Jackson Woods last year, leading to a collaborative effort last fall to plant a native garden at Jackson Woods Park in Long Branch, funded by a grant from the Garden Club of American (GCA). Just last week, RCG members returned to Jackson Woods to pull weeds, add new plants, and spread mulch to help maintain the garden, as part of Jackson Woods’ ongoing revitalization. We are working on plans for future collaborations with RCG as well!
Native Plant Resources
MCF is relaunching and greatly expanding our educational outreach programming, with the recent hiring of Doug Caum, Director of Educational Outreach. Follow along on our website and social media channels for resources, volunteer opportunities, educational and hands-on programs like the MCF Conservation Wagon. We will soon be offering these activities at Scudder Preserve!
Rumson Garden Club has also planted example landscapes locally at Victory Park, Riverside Park, and St. George’s Church, as well as the rain garden at Rutgers, hoping to educate and instruct local residents on how easy it is to use natives in their own yard. Their Native Plant Sale, being held on June 7, 2025, will have an extensive selection for anyone who wants to get started.
Concept Plan for Edgemere Park Pollinator Garden Designed by Flower to the People.