Columbia community center kickstarts spring with native plant garden | Mid-Missouri News [Video]

COLUMBIA – Spring officially begins this week, and one Columbia community center is showing off their green thumbs.

Centro Latino de Salud, in central Columbia, is building a garden with plants that are native to Missouri.

“They’re adapted to the weird Missouri weather we have; to our, you know, fake spring, and then there’s another frost, and then it’s 80 degrees again,” Eze Pojmann-Ezeonyilo, a plant project specialist with the Missouri Department of Agriculture, said. “… And then it’s freezing again, and then there’s a flood, and then there’s a drought, plants that are from Missouri they’re used to all of that.”

The center already has some signs up of what will be grown, with explanations in English and Spanish.

Pojmann-Ezeonyilo said the project is a chance for the community to understand native plant’s connection to the eco system.

Native plants take about a year to …