Exercise Your Green Thumb!
03/16/2009
Planting Day is May 16, 10am to 2pm
Main Street Highland Park is looking for volunteers to participate in the 6th Annual Planting Day, where residents and friends fill planters in the borough with vibrant flowers and grass.
The event is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 16, rain or shine. Volunteers will be planting along Raritan and Woodbridge Avenues and “Doughboy Park.” They should meet at Main Street Highland Park, 421 Raritan Ave. Organizers have a limited amount of gloves and trowels, so, if volunteers have their own, they are asked to bring them.
The event gets bigger every year. About 80 people volunteered last year.
“The first year, it was really just the Main Street contacts, but at this point, people look forward to it,” said Meredith Carman, event co-chairwoman. “Two years ago, we had to turn people away.”
Volunteers will fill 107 containers with plants ranging from sweet potato vines and petunias to lantanas and grasses.
“The grasses are the central plant. It provides the height and texture,” Carman said. “And the petunias and lantanas provide the color.”
Volunteers will be given a drawing to indicate where each plant should be planted.
“We supply the plants and send them on their way,” said Ira Grasgreen, co-chairman of the event.
Carman stressed that those who aren’t gardeners shouldn’t shy way from the event.
“People don’t have to know about planting. We give them the knowledge,” she said.
Planting Day is a great way to give back to the community.
“It’s nice to be a part of something you see everyday on Main Street,” Carman said.
Grasgreen said, “It’s a great event to be a part of the community and for anyone who loves nature and who loves to plant.”
For more information or to volunteer, contact Main Street Highland Park at (732) 828-8444.