FROSTBURG — The city of Frostburg’s Green Team has been planting plants native to the mid-Atlantic region for the past eight years that will be a learning tool and space for community members of all ages.
“Things are really coming together through the hard work of so many people who are just so dedicated, knowledgeable, enthusiastic,” said Jenna Linhart, a volunteer with the Green Team. “And we’re just excited to have the community engaged with this — this is everybody’s project. Everybody is welcome here.”
The edible arboretum is located at Parris N. Glendening Recreation Complex and is just that — an arboretum exhibiting trees and edible plants all native to the area.
“We were kicking around the idea of a project for community parks and playgrounds grant funding,” said Brian Vought, Frostburg’s director of Parks and Recreation.
“And that was one of the things that just came up was an edible arboretum that has native trees and things that you don’t typically see out and about in farmers markets and things like that.”
The edible arboretum has been in the works since 2017, and is now in its second phase after a $20,000 grant from Sustainable Maryland.
The city held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday afternoon to celebrate its opening.
“Some of the plants have started producing fruit,” Vought said. “I think we have some persimmons and some blueberries and a few other things up there that have finally started producing fruit.”
The arboretum will be used for various educational opportunities for both students of Frost Elementary all the way up to Frostburg State University’s ethnobotany students, Vought said.
“People can start planting some of these plants in their own yard,” said Nina Forsythe, Frostburg’s commissioner of Water, Parks and Recreation.
“But also just finding out about what is native in this area, because people think of fruit coming from elsewhere.”
Members of the Green Team echoed the importance of planting native plants in areas they are native to.
According to the National Wildlife Federation, planting native plants is beneficial to local wildlife, climate and people.
This project has been an effort led not only by the Green Team, but other groups, including a local Boy Scout troop that has helped with planting and students from Mountain Ridge High School’s environmental team who have created labels for some of the plants.
Green Team volunteers acknowledged former Director of Community Development Bethany Fife’s contribution to the project through her work with the Green Team and obtaining grant money.
Green Team volunteer Karen Krogeh has been with the project over the past eight years and has drawn up a variety of blueprints and visions for the arboretum. With continued work by the Green Team, the arboretum will soon resemble her mock-ups.
Additionally, the arboretum will feature a mural on a shed completed by Linhart of hands holding some of the native fruits in the garden.
“So basically this is truly a community space,” Linhart said. “So, we’re hoping the word gets out and more and more people make it their own in that they find the piece that works for them to help with or utilize it.”
The arboretum is open to the public.
“Anybody can come in, and eat the fruit, take notes, sit and relax,” Forsythe said.
Natalie Leslie can be reached at 304-639-4403.