Native & Wild Medicinal Garden

Inner Gardening

Cultivating
Quiet mind
Peaceful heart
Active body
Sparkling soul

I created an educational medicinal garden for my town with the help of volunteers and grants from United Plant Savers and Passaic County’s Dig In program. We transformed a dumping ground in the middle of the road into a beautiful native and wild medicinal plant garden. I call it Education at the Crossroads. Karen, who graduated from my apprenticeship program, now heads the garden and everyone is invited to visit and encouraged to come help, learn, and bask in the healing energy of the garden. Those in master gardeners’ programs can satisfy some required hours by contributing to it as well! 

For More Information: natureconnectionofwestmildord.org

Native and Wild Medicinal Plant Garden

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Here are some of the plants you can find in the garden:

 

BLACK COHOSH - CIMICIFUGA RACEMOSA

  • Perennial

  • Part shade, full shade

  • Most, acidic, rich soil

  • blooms June through September

 

ECHINACEA - ECHINACEA PURPUREA

  • Perennial

  • Full sun, part shade

  • Well-drained soil

  • Blooms June through September

 

 

MILKWEED - ASCLEPIAS SYRIACA

*Host plant for every stage of the Monarch butterfly

  • Perennial

  • Full sun

  • Average to dry soil

  • Blooms June to September

History

The Native and Wild Medicinal Plant Garden, AKA The Douglass Memorial Garden offers free outdoor herbal medicine education and is now in its 13th year. We adopted a spot that was covered with trash and poison ivy at the triangle intersection of Clinton Road and Warwick Turnpike in Hewitt, NJ. Hard work and love has turned the garden into an organic, medicinal herb sanctuary, free of fertilizers and pesticides. It was created and is maintained by volunteers.

The garden was born of a partnership between Wisewoman Healing Ways and Sustainable West Milford, and a $500 grant from United Plant Savers. It continued with the support of several grants from Passaic County’s Dig In program. The garden was also awarded recognition at the state level, the only medicinal garden among the community gardens that were being honored. Robin Rose was later awarded the NJ Jefferson Award, described as: Honorees of the New Jersey State Governor's Jefferson Award achieve measurable community impact and represent outstanding acts of public service, without the expectation of recognition or compensations. Recipients demonstrate unique vision, dedication, tenacity of heroic proportion and serve as an inspiration to others.

The plot is home to an abundant number of medicinal herbs and native plants. We have two benches for our visitors and hard-working volunteers. The first bench we received was a gift made from locally harvested oak by a local farmer friend, Roger Knight of Two Pond Farms.

In 2010 Robin Rose’s life partner Douglass turned the garden into a permaculture garden, creating swales and berms to capture and store rainwater, and installing a water catchment system to help the plants and the soil to thrive.

One summer evening after Robin Rose gave a free weed walk at the garden, she and Douglass surprised everyone by asking them to stay and be their witnesses as they renewed their life-partnership vows, then everyone celebrated with elder blossom champagne!

Robin’s beloved Doug passed away in 2012 after a swift bout with lung cancer. It was an enormous shock to the entire community as he passed less than two months after his diagnosis. The garden was renamed the Douglass Memorial Garden in his memory.

Visit our calendar for up-coming events and learning days at the garden. We hope to see you there soon!

The garden is located at the intersection of Clinton Road and Warwick Turnpike in Hewitt, NJ 07421.