Pollinator Garden
Teach children in an urban environment, the importance of pollinators and help increase the worldwide decreasing pollinator populations by building a pollinator garden on our school grounds.
Leader
NAOMI MONTALVO
Location
25 First St Elizabeth, NJ 07206
About the project
Students and staff members will learn about the importance of pollinators in our everyday life. We will work with students to create a natural environment for pollinators that include plants for nectar, pollen, and laying eggs and areas for pollinators to drink water and find shelter. Students will learn how to care for the garden to keep plants alive and will become experts by learning how to give guided tours and explain the importance of the garden.
The Steps
1. Educate students, faculty members, and family members about the importance of pollinators in our everyday lives using videos and a newsletter.
2. Have materials delivered to the school.
3. Build raised garden beds. Install garden beds by digging holes for posts to be anchored in.
4. Fill beds with compost and soil using the garden tools.
5. Purchase plants from a NJ Garden Center. Plant selected plants.
6. Water plants and maintain them to ensure successful healthy start in their new home.
7. Build and paint signs for our pollinator garden with facts to teach members in the community about our pollinator garden.
8. Care for garden. When it begins to flourish, observe which pollinators are visiting.
9. Allow students to give tours of the pollinator garden to educate others on the importance of pollinators.
Why we‘re doing it
Because of pollinators such as bees, butterflies, birds, beetles, bats, wasps and even flies, we are able to enjoy a world of flowers, fruits, and plants grown for food and used in beverages, medicine, condiments, fabrics and spices. Indirectly, pollinators play a big role in the majority of what we eat and consume.
Unfortunately, there is an alarming worldwide decline in pollinator populations due to the use of pesticides and natural habitats being built upon.
We can make a positive difference in our school environment and community by providing pollinators with a natural environment by building a pollinator garden. By using an assortment of flowering plants that provide a nectar source for many pollinators, host plants for butterflies to lay eggs and salt licks for bees and butterflies to stop by and drink water, we would help increase the pollinator populations.
This is also an opportunity for our students in an urban environment to have an opportunity to learn about gardening, how to care for and respect their environment and the environment of other animals.