Suburban Philadelphia Public-Private Partnership is For The Birds.

November 19, 2018

How one GCA club makes a difference.

Since 1979, The Garden Workers garden club in Philadelphia has partnered with Lower Merion Township to help maintain and enhance Sharpe Park and Bird Sanctuary. The 2.7-acre property is located in Haverford, PA and was gifted by The Garden Workers member Catherine Dixon Sharpe in 1963. The park has been designated as one of Audubon’s “Bird Towns,” a working partnership designed to promote a healthy, more sustainable environment for birds and people.

The goals for this beautiful pocket park remain the same - a low maintenance woodland park with plant material to attract birds, educational signage for plants, bird feeders, and community involvement.

Lower Merion Township provides maintenance for trees, lighting, pathways and fencing. Through regularly scheduled workdays (two in the spring and two in the fall), The Garden Workers members provide garden maintenance by pruning shrubbery, weeding, and planting bulbs, annuals, and perennials. Members are required to attend at least two of the workdays and many members weed and water newly installed plants on a more regular basis. During the winter, members fill bird feeders each week.

In addition to assistance from the township, a portion of the proceeds from The Garden Workers annual benefit dinner is designated to support the park and bird sanctuary. Plantings this fall included a dogwood tree, shrubs, and perennials at the southeastern entrance to the park.

photos: Debbie Laverell

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