Merry Lea hosts native plantings workshop on May 20

WOLF LAKE, Ind. – Bill Minter, director of land management at Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College, will conduct a hands-on workshop, “Native plantings: Creating a rain garden,” for those interested in planting native flowers and grasses. The event will take place at Merry Lea near Wolf Lake, Ind., on Saturday, May 20, from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m.

Minter will describe how native plants are being used to restore the landscape, prevent run-off and purify water at Merry Lea’s newly-constructed Rieth Village. The morning will include input highlighting methods of establishing native plantings, time for questions about your own landscaping projects and a laboratory session at one of Rieth Village’s rain gardens. Participants will help install native plant plugs in a biotrope – a planting designed to hold and cleanse water as part of the landscaping at Rieth Village.

There is no charge for the workshop, but participants are asked to pre-register by calling Merry Lea at (260) 799-5869 or e-mailing jenniferhs@goshen.edu, by May 17.

Participants should meet in the pavilion at Merry Lea’s Farmstead at 8:30 a.m. Bring trowels, gloves and boots for muddy conditions. Refreshments will be provided.

Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center is a 1,150-acre nature center located in central Noble County and owned and operated by Goshen College. This natural sanctuary for northern Indiana’s plants and animals provides environmental education for people of all ages and a setting to recreate opportunities that benefit the human body and spirit without exploiting the land. Merry Lea was created with the assistance of the Nature Conservancy and the generosity of Lee A. and Mary Jane Rieth. For more information and directions, go to www.goshen.edu/merrylea. Visitors should come to the Farmstead location and park in the general parking area.

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a four-year residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.