By: Dean Vaglia | Macomb Chronicle | Published August 5, 2025
MACOMB TOWNSHIP — Over two years since the Old Township Hall was relocated to the corner of Broughton Road and Plattsburg Street, plans to make the historic space stand out have been progressing at pace.
As of late July, several gardens have been planted around the Historic Township Hall with plans to add more in the future.
“We planted our first kidney-shaped bed,” said Nethanya Fonseka, a Macomb Township resident and the founder of tree planting project Plant It Forward. “(Kathi Piepnbrok, a fellow resident volunteer and a master gardener) was able to bring in a lot of community master gardeners, and I was able to get a few student volunteers to come out and volunteer. Next spring we hope to plant one or two more, but obviously we’ll need more help from the community.”
The gardens, the first of which was planted on June 27, make up the heritage garden that aims to give the Old Township Hall landscaping reflective of what the township was like over 100 years ago. Consisting of native plants aiming to support local pollinators, the garden is just one of four intended to surround the old hall. The pollinator garden is located on the northwest side of the plot with a sunflower garden set to be planted in the southwest corner, a Victorian garden in the southeast corner and a white garden planned for the northeast corner.
“We’re trying to be aware of our environment when we’re planting, and also trying to teach others to be aware,” Piepnbrok said. “That’s the whole idea behind this.”
Along with the planned gardens, space behind the Old Township Hall that previously was sitting dormant has been repurposed to create a wildflower meadow.
“That area of land is pretty overlooked,” Fonseka said. “A lot of people just walk right by it because it was cluttered with a lot of invasive thistle and it had a lot of construction debris there. We wanted to turn it into a space for biodiversity and our pollinators. We already have the heritage garden, but we wanted to go beyond that.”
Once the land was cleared of debris, the group received wildflower seeds from Green Macomb that will join the perennials and pollinator-friendly flora already planted in the meadow-designated area. Seeding is planned to begin this fall and take place in spring 2026 as well. Even in early stages of the meadow, butterflies and monarch caterpillars have been spotted feeding on the pollen.
The volunteers behind the gardens at the Old Township Hall are also responsible for planting a hummingbird garden on the south end of Pitchford Park back in April 2024. The garden has since been able to grow well after some minor touch ups, and the volunteers are in the stages of using the garden as an educational opportunity. Labels for the garden’s plants are being added on stakes, and pamphlets about the garden will be placed in the park as well.
“(The Pitchford plants) are getting a foothold in a difficult area that was compacted and heavy clay and poor nutrition and (had) a lot of flooding with all the torrential rains we’ve had,” Piepnbrok said. “I’m hoping by next year we’re going to have quite the garden.”
The volunteers are looking for support from community members or community groups interested in donating time or resources to their gardening projects around Macomb Township. Those interested in gardening can contact Piepnbrok at kathijo1@aol.com.