Land Acknowledgement
I humbly acknowledge that the land I tend as Gowen Gardens & Nursery is the unceded ancestral Indigenous territory of the Lenni-Lenape, called Lenapehoking.
The Lenape People lived in harmony with one another upon this territory for thousands of years. During the colonial era and early federal period, many were forcefully removed west and north, but some also remain among the continuing historical tribal communities of the region: The Lenape Nation of PA, The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation; the Ramapough Lenape Nation; and the Powhatan Renape Nation, The Nanticoke of Millsboro Delaware, and the Lenape of Cheswold Delaware.
While I recognize that this Land Acknowledgement is not enough, by offering this Land Acknowledgement, I affirm Indigenous sovereignty and will work to honor the Lenape and other Indigenous caretakers of these lands and waters, the elders who lived here before, the Indigenous today, and the generations to come.
In my acknowledgment of the continued presence of Lenape people in their homeland, I affirm the aspiration of the great Lenape Chief Tamanend, that there be harmony between the indigenous people of this land and the descendants of the immigrants to this land, “as long as the rivers and creeks flow, and the sun, moon, and stars shine.”
Passion | Purpose | Mission
Gowen Gardens & Nursery, a Galante Properties property, is a private residence with gardens designed to exemplify an urban, native plant wildlife habitat.
The mission of Gowen Gardens & Nursery is to transform (and maintain) its green space into an exemplary urban, native wildlife habitat, while providing native plants to neighbors through, propagation, seed saving, and suckering.
Restoration
Restoration began Summer 2009, with weeding. Then, section by section, the invasive plants- Honeysuckle, Bittersweet, Norway Maple saplings, Garlic Mustard, Bindweed, several large Barberry bushes, English Ivy, etc.- were eradicated, and native plants filled the developing gardens.
Today
Today, Gowen Gardens is divided into multiple segments of the property with 70+ species of native plants that provide food and shelter for animals above and below the soil.
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