Media firm assists Hildacy Preserve with boost from feds
Media landscape company assists Hildacy Preserve with help from Paycheck Protection Program
MARPLE » A Delaware County landscape company has donated staff, who were kept employed through the Small Business Administration Paycheck Protection Program, to assist Natural Lands’ headquarters at Hildacy Preserve in removing invasive plants and cleaning gardens.
GreenWeaver Landscapes, based in Media, recently sent a team of gardeners to the 55acre preserve on Palmers Mill Road just down stream from the Springton Reservoir to assist in the removal of invasive species and to clean up the headquarter’s extensive gardens. GreenWeaver donated their services, thanks to their ability to keep their staff employed through the Federal Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
“We were fortunate to receive the Paycheck Protection Program Loan so that we could keep all of our valued workers employed during the pandemic,” said Jennifer Nichols, who owns GreenWeaver Landscapes with her husband Greg. “So we had the money to pay our staff but wanted to keep them busy as well, and our workload had dried up considerably when COVID-19 hit. That’s when we thought of donating time to Natural Lands. It was a win-win.”
GreenWeaver Landscapes, established in 2008, specializes in fine gardening design and installation, stormwater management and native plant floriculture. They have a clientele covering Southeastern Pennsylvania and Northern Delaware. Nichols said their business is seasonal with 10 yearround employees, and 18 during the busy months in the spring and fall, while July and August are a slower time of year for them.
“We consider ourselves environmental stewards. We use
“We consider ourselves environmental stewards. We use landscaping to further that goal by taking care of properties in an environmentally friendly way and we wanted to help Natural Lands do that on their property.”
— Jennifer Nichols, who co-owns GreenWeaver Landscapes
landscaping to further that goal by taking care of properties in an environmentally friendly way and we wanted to help Natural Lands do that on their property,” Nichols said.
The crew from GreenWeaver spent three days on the Hildacy project weeding and mulching garden beds around the buildings and removing invasive plant species in the natural areas of the preserve. They targeted problem species in the meadow, including mugwort and thistle, which can choke out native species like milkweed and other beneficial pollinator plants. The team also cut back invasive shrubs like burning bush and barberry in Hildacy’s woodlands.
“We were very lucky we were considered an essential business,” Nichols said. “Our first priority is keeping people safe and we used our professional organizations to learn best practices for our industry. We’ve been changing logistics on how we run the business.”
Nichols said getting to the job site and staging is more danger
ous than doing the work when it comes to dealing with the virus. Among the changes her company made included having crews travel separately to job sites, wearing masks when working closely, designers working from home and meeting clients in yards not in their homes.
Hildacy Preserve, located along the banks of Crum Creek, is one of 44 properties that Natural Lands owns and cares for. They also manage the Wawa Preserve in Middletown, Stoneleigh Gardens in Villanova, as well as a number of preserves in Chester County, part of a network of preserves totaling 23,000 acres of protected open space stretching from the Pocono Mountains to the Delaware Bayshore. It is the Greater Philadelphia region’s oldest and largest land conservation organization.
“I can’t thank GreenWeaver Landscapes enough for their generosity and skilled work,” said Oliver Bass, president of Natural Lands. “The coronavirus health crisis has impacted us all ... small businesses and nonprofits alike.
What a wonderful positive outcome this was in such a difficult time. We’re honored GreenWeaver chose to make such a creative and beneficial gift of their time.”
“We are definitely friends of Natural Lands and love the work they are doing. We have a staff we want to protect, keep healthy and keep busy and decided it was a great opportunity to use the payroll money to promote some of our values, which are environmental and take care of our employees at the same time,” said Nichols. “PPP money helped. It was very helpful in stabilizing things when there were a lot of questions in what the future was looking like. Stabilizing the business, feeling we could keep people on … otherwise we might be thinking we need to cut back.”
Nichols said going forward she believes the fall will be okay for her business but long-term, there are still a lot of questions.