Refugia Design: Lower Merion Go for the Green Award Recipient
Swamp milkweed, or Asclepias incarnata, a favorite flower for Monarch butterflies, in bloom at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute last summer. Stop by in the coming months to see it for yourself!
We are excited to announce that this week, Refugia Design received the 'Lower Merion Go for the Green' Award for Site Greening at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute. The Go for the Green Award is sponsored by the Lower Merion Environmental Advisory Council, and "recognizes our Township's finest residents, businesses, organizations, and schools...for their work to improve and protect our environment."
Our installation at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute seeks to:
- help meet the township requirements specified in the Natural Features code
- transform the site into an oasis that is beautiful in all four seasons
- plant native species useful for birds and pollinators
- increase stormwater filtration and absorption
- restore soil health
Since the installation of this project, we have received glowing feedback from BMFI patrons. In addition, BMFI successfully met the township code. We have observed monarch caterpillars, bees, butterflies, and birds using the site frequently. The landscape has something to offer both people and wildlife in all four seasons, whether its colorful and fragrant summer flowers, the yellow fall foliage of the sweetgum trees (Liquidambar styracifulua), or the bright red bark and berries of red-twig dogwood (Cornus sericea), and winterberry (Ilex verticillata). We have successfully transformed a static, sterile site into a vibrant landscape buzzing with life. We are proud of this project's successful transformation into a landscape design that is both beautiful and ecologically functional. Thank you, Lower Merion Township, for this honor!