Gardeners in the Lehigh Valley now have a one-stop online destination for all things native, thanks to the new Lehigh Valley Native Plant Directory created by the Lehigh County and Northampton County Master Gardeners. This directory encourages residents to use low-maintenance native plants in their gardens and to provide food and habitat for wildlife and critical pollinators.

The Lehigh Valley Native Plant Directory is part of the Master Gardener project to promote the Homegrown National Park (homegrownnationalpark.org), a campaign by entomology professor and best-selling book author Doug Tallamy. The goal is to replace 20 million acres of lawn and invasive and foreign plants with native plants. HNP is the largest not-for-profit cooperative conservation project ever undertaken in the United States.

To learn more about the Lehigh Valley Native Plant Directory, visit the Lehigh Gap Nature Center website at lgnc.org/lvnpd-1 or 8844 Paint Mill Road, Slatington, 18080, providing area residents with resources for education, native plant gardens, arboretums, wild lands and nurseries.

Home gardeners are encouraged to add their location on the map of the Homegrown National Park at map.homegrownnationalpark.org and indicate you were “lit up” by Lehigh Valley Master Gardeners. Every native planting site helps to increase biodiversity in the Lehigh Valley.

Master Gardener volunteers support Penn State Extension’s educational programs in consumer horticulture. They develop their horticultural expertise through participation in educational training classes conducted by Penn State University faculty and Extension staff.

The Penn State Master Gardener volunteer program supports the outreach mission of Penn State Extension by utilizing unbiased research-based information to educate the public and our communities on best practices in sustainable horticulture and environmental stewardship.