Seed planted for watershed conservancy greenhouse

LOWER SALFORD » The Jacob Reiff property, which dates back to the 1700s, isn’t an active farm anymore, but by next year, a new crop of plants could be grown there to help with local land and water conservation projects.

At its April 6 meeting, the Lower Salford Township Board of Supervisors approved a lease agreement for Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy to build a greenhouse in Jacob Reiff Park.

Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy grows between 10,000 and 20,000 plants per year for restoration projects, Ryan Beltz, the group’s executive director, said following the meeting.

“Currently, we’re doing those operations over at Peter Wentz Farmstead, which is owned by the county, but we’re looking for a little bit more space,” he said.

The Conservancy has recently been involved in streambank restoration at Reiff Park and thinks it would be a perfect place to move the greenhouse operations to, he said.

“Right now, I think we produce about 120 different species of native plants,” Beltz said.

Some are grown from seed, with other types of plants started by other growers, he said.

The plan is to build the greenhouse this summer or fall, he said.

“For the most part, we’re not in a super rush because we don’t need the greenhouse until probably February,” Beltz said. “We’re thinking summer, fall, get the greenhouse built, and then kind of fine-tune over the winter and then February, we’re ready to roll.”

Supply chain issues are affecting how quickly the greenhouse can be built, he said, but “it is what it is” and the greenhouse can hopefully be built in time to meet the schedule.

The Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy activities at the site will be coordinated with the Lower Salford Historical Society, which also has activities there, Beltz said in answer to questions during the meeting.

He said PWC would like to do some joint programming with the Lower Salford Historical Society.

“We’d like to use the barn and also the house, but in accordance with the Historical Society,” he said.

The plan is to initially use the existing driveway, but to possibly add a secondary driveway in the future in order to have a bus turn-around area for school groups to come to the greenhouse, he said.

Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy is paying $1 for the lease, along with paying for the construction of the greenhouse and any

other related improvements to the site, Township Manager Joe Czajkowski said in answer to an emailed question for this article. PWC could also contribute financially to improvements to the house and barn, Beltz said at the meeting.

The 73-acre Jacob Reiff Park at Quarry Road and Upper Mainland Road includes the historic house and barn, along with access to Skippack Creek for fishing, according to township information.