Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

COLUMBUS—The Gardening for Life non-profit group hosted its second annual Celebration on Saturday, March 30 at Polk County High School. The event featured a speech by esteemed botanist, photographer, and author, Jim McCormac, who is known for his book “Gardening for Moths”. 

“Jim McCormac is an amazing botanist from Ohio that has co-authored two different books, and his presentation is outrageously entertaining ,” said Gardening for Life Spokesperson, Corrie Woods “It’s really a groundswell of support in Polk County.” 

According to Woods, the free community event brought together more than 750 people, twenty environmental groups, and ten plant vendors with native plants. 

Vendor Kim Meadows, owner of Milkweed Meadows Farm in Hendersonville, which specializes in native plants, shared her excitement, saying, “It’s like Christmas morning. This is the first plant sale of spring, and it’s so heartening to see everyone coming out after winter and getting back into planting.” 

“There is so much support for pollinators and diversity in the plants,” said Jim McCormac, showing his excitement to visit the area, “One of the plants I was excited to see was sweet white trillium, which only comes out here where all the States come together.” 

McCormac emphasized the importance of planting native plants for moths to flourish. “The moths have gotten shortchanged,” added McCormac. “So we did our best to rectify this with our book. There are more moths than butterflies, and I’m here to talk about their importance.” 

Exhibitor Loti Woods, Founder of Champions for Wildlife, was excited about the kids who decorated all the seed packets of native plants. “They are true works of art. And not only are the kids here handing out seed packets, but they also did brochures on moths, which is the theme of this year’s event, that are so informative and well-made.” 

The Gardening for Life Celebration was a huge success. It brought together the community and environmental groups to support the planting of native plants. A video of McCormac’s talk will be available on the project’s website, gardeningforlifeproject.org, which serves as a learning center on pollinators and native plants.