What started as one couple's effort to protect an established, natural beehive has blossomed into a pocket pollinator garden along the Swamp Rabbit Trail in Cleveland Park.
City Council accepted a $25,000 donation from Chuck and Jo Macpherson, finalizing plans to build a pollinator oasis between Cancer Survivors Park and the Major Rudolf Anderson airplane memorial.
Work will begin in October on the pollinator garden, which includes a wildflower meadow and a Monarch butterfly waystation that will become part of a national Monarch registry and enhance the City's commitment to the Mayor's Pledge for Monarch Habitats. The plantings will provide a habitat for all pollinators - butterflies, insects, bees, birds, reptile and mammals. The garden will be complete by November.
The City will assist by performing some of the work in-house, such as site preparation, tree planting, erosion control measures and boulder placement. The new habitat plans call for a small garden fence and hundreds of colorful, native pollinator-friendly plants, bushes and wildflowers to serve as natural buffers between Ridgeway Road and the Reedy River.
