About 18 volunteers, including post office employees and members of the Warren Volunteer Gardeners, amassed on Child Street on Sunday to plant various wild plant species and transform what was once a rather unsightly piece of underutilized land adjacent to the Warren Post Office into a lush garden.

The planting was the culmination of a lot of planning and was funded by a $1,000 grant via the Rhode Island Wild Plant Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and protection of local wild plant life. The grant was secured by Wendy Brennan, a master gardener and member of the Volunteer Gardeners, as well as the RI Wild Plant Society.

“This is a true community project and we’re very proud of it,” said Elizabeth O’Connell, who helped coordinate the project and co-founded the volunteer gardening group, which also oversees the popular blue flower pots that go out each spring throughout the downtown.

The group planted around 200 plants encompassing around 30 different types of native species along the northern and eastern sides of the Post Office, which Brennan said will take about a year to bloom into their full glory. They acquired many of the plants from local nurseries, but also received some from volunteers’ personal gardens.

“I’m very excited to see what it turns into,” offered Alison Peter, a post office employee who said she has fielded numerous questions from customers about the underutilized land on the post office’s grounds.

O’Connell thanked the numerous volunteers who helped see the project through, including Dottie Dylag, Allison Newsome, Carol Serbst, Kara Johnston, Postmaster Don Desrosiers, and the Warren DPW for their assistance. O’Connell added that the Volunteer Gardeners are always in need of more members, and anyone interested should email WarrenVolunteerGardeners@gmail.com.