Harmonious & Earth-friendly Gardening Talk - Tues. Apr. 9th - 7PM

Spring is here! The Animal Initiative Committee is hosting a Harmonious & Earth-friendly Gardening Seminar on Tuesday April 9, 2019 at 7:00 PM in the Lower Meeting Room of the Plainfield Public Library, 800 Park Avenue, Plainfield, New Jersey 07060. The seminar will feature a presentation by Bruce Crawford, Director of the Rutgers Gardens. “A healthy environment is a biodiverse one. As we plan and plant our gardens and landscaping, we need to consider ways to live in harmony with the other animals and nature,” said Maryellen Chanda, Animal Initiative Committee Event Chairwoman. Mr. Crawford will be sharing the ‘lessons learned’ at the Rutgers Gardens on how to discourage unwanted human/wildlife interactions and ways to reduce harmful pesticides and herbicides by using nature for balance and beauty. The Harmonious & Earth-friendly Gardening Seminar is free of charge and open to everyone. For more information about the event please call 908.256-3858 or email [email protected].

The Rutgers Gardens, founded in 1927, is comprised of a series of horticultural collections arranged in garden settings that spread over fifty acres in in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The garden areas feature a diverse variety of landscape plants with origins that span the globe. The future of the Rutgers Gardens is the development of designed gardens where landscape architects, design professionals, and home owners will be able to see and learn different methods of combining plants that will provide four seasons of color, texture and form. The Gardens will also be running comparison tests of various cultivars, to see which will do best in the conditions of central New Jersey. Rutgers Gardens is self-sustaining and relies heavily on donations the efforts of many volunteers. It is one of the few botanical gardens in the country that does not charge a visitor’s fee and is open 365 days a year. For more information about Rutgers Gardens, please visit http://rutgersgardens.rutgers....

The Animal Initiative Committee (AIC), founded in 2000, is a NJ Non-profit Corporation, is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to increasing people’s awareness of their responsibility for the well-being of all animals. “Wildlife and companion animals are being needlessly killed due to inadequate facilities and a lack of understanding,” said Mrs. Chanda. The AIC focuses on the problem of overpopulation of dogs and cats, especially community cats. It implemented a very successful trap, neuter, and return (TNR) program for the latter. “We continue to emphasize the importance of the use of available spay/neuter programs in controlling dog and cat populations, but we can only succeed with the active support of both the community and City Administration,” Ms. Chanda stressed. The AIC is also focused on educating people on ways to live in harmony with the animals that share our world. “Volunteers to help with these important efforts are always needed”, she concluded. For more information about the Animal Initiative Committee, please call 908.256-3858 or email [email protected].