Meagan and Mitchell Turner helped restore the Cloverdale Garden at NASA.
Photo courtesy Andrea Turner
Native plants are as much a part of history as centuries-old brick-and-mortar buildings.
Just ask the Turner family of York County.
For a year, Andrea Turner and her children, Meagan and Mitchell, have worked to restore the historical Cloverdale Garden at NASA Langley Research Center.
The garden goes back about 277 years ago, when Augustine Moore purchased 50 acres of land from James Tomer, the grandson of Thomas Wythe I, according to a recent article in The Researcher News, a NASA publication. That land, which now occupies portions of the western area of NASA's Langley Research Center, was known as the Moorefield Plantation. It was home for the Moore family for roughly 35 years until they moved to the Moore House in Yorktown, where a treaty ended the American Revolution.
"The garden encourages people to plant natives that require less water, fertilizer and pesticides, thus adding fewer chemicals to the landscape and maintaining water quality in nearby rivers and streams," says Andrea. Husband Travis, a research scientist at Langley, also assisted with the garden.
In addition, most of the native species attract beneficial pollinators.
You can see the garden and talk to the Turners 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sept. 22 during NASA's open house. Meagan, 10, and Mitchell, 8, members of the Conservation-Preservation-Restoration Committee of the Moore House Society, Children of the American Revolution, and Andrea , member of the Comte de Grasse Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, will feature information on native plants, and will give out free columbine seeds collected from their own plants. You need to show a driver's license at the gate to attend the free open house.
Native plants the Turners have planted include witch hazel, pawpaw, fringe tree, Yorktown onion, mayapple, Jamestown lily, woodland pinkroot, black-eyed Susan, Joe-pye weed, giant sunflower, button blazing star, thread-leaf coreopsis, anise-scented goldenrod, spiderwort, woodland aster, cardinal flower, common milkweed, purple coneflower, eastern red columbine and eastern dogwood. The garden also features graveled walkways and benches.
Many of these plants benefit pollinators and wildlife, giving them sanctuary, food and nesting sites.
"It helps people understand that pesticides will destroy our already diminishing pollinators that are needed for a healthy ecosystem," says Andrea.
"One of the primary goals of the CAR is to preserve and restore places of historical importance associated with men and women who forwarded American independence, this being the Cloverdale Garden. Their second charge for the CPR committee is to preserve our native ecosystem and conserve our resources." Learn more about these efforts through the Virginia Society Children of the American Revolutionhttp://www.vscar.organd the Moore House Society at http://moorehousecarcpr.webs.com/.
The Turners preserve and nurture native and colonial plants at their home, using them in the CAR's Yorktown Herb Garden, as well as the Cloverdale project. Andrea also sugars flowers and leaves to use and eat on cakes and cupcakes.
"Our next endeavor is to grow colonial plants that lend themselves to fabulous dye colors," says Andrea.
Plant sale. Hampton master gardeners sell thousands of plants 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday at Bluebird Gap Farm, 60 Chapel Hill Road, Hampton. Cash or check; 727-1401.
Contact Kathy at email@example.com.