Friends of Baltimore Woods thanks everyone who supported our annual sale & fundraiser with Sparrowhawk Native Plants, including customers and, most especially, volunteers. This year’s plant sale offered more than 110 native species from their website, Sparrowhawknativeplants.com. On-line ordering began on March 2nd. Thanks to a community of native plant enthusiasts, we quickly filled up all of our available sale slots. Plant pickups took place in St Johns on a balmy April 18th and 19th. A generous portion of the sale’s proceeds went to Friends of Baltimore Woods for our ongoing work on restoration and plant propagation. Here’s a message from Nikkie West and Tracy Cozine, Sparrowhawk proprietors—the ones in the bright pink aprons: Another annual spring native plant sale knocked it…

The 2024 Spring Sparrowhawk FOBW Native Plant Sale was a huge success! All in all, 480 habitat gardeners picked up 6,300 pre-ordered native plants on Friday and Saturday morning the last week of April. Additionally, about 50 folks showed up for the overstock flash sale on Saturday afternoon and cleaned out the lot. This was the very first time we didn’t have one single plant left over at the sale’s end! Together, Sparrowhawk staff and Friends of Baltimore Woods volunteers helped every one of more than 7,000 plants find new, loving homes. These plants will fight the good fight to support pollinators, wildlife, and help promote climate resiliency. The sale…

What would happen if the Friends of Baltimore Woods (FOBW) had access to rare and unusual native plants, beyond the familiar favorites Portland Parks can provide? How would we plant them in the Baltimore Woods Lower Meadow, which was once covered in asphalt, and has hot, dry clay soil in summer? And what would be the best way to plant them, so that they aren’t in soil either too rich or too hard-packed for them to succeed? These are questions we hope to answer, thanks to a $3,000 grant from (Gardening in America) Garden Club of America.  When the Garden Club of Portland (PGC) approached Friends of Baltimore Woods with the…

Did you know you could adopt a local bioswale and take care of it as a steward? Bioswales are areas along city streets and sidewalks containing rain gardens intended to collect stormwater. They use soil and plants to capture and filter rainwater to reduce the load on the city’s stormwater system. They also help prevent pollution from washing into our rivers. The streets that have bioswales on them are called “Green Streets.” The City of Portland Environmental Services builds and maintains Green Streets all around Portland. Many of the bioswales are available for adoption! The primary stewardship tasks involve trash collection, weeding and clearing of debris from water inlets. Watering…