Pollinator Garden
What is a pollinator garden?
There are more than 250,000 kinds of flowers and all flowers produce pollen. The pollen must reach other flowers in order to grow a seed. There are several ways that the pollen can be transferred from one flower to another. Wind can blow pollen away to another flower, or animals such as bees, flies, birds and butterflies can carry pollen. Different colors or scents of flowers attract certain kinds of pollinators. After a flower is pollinated it is able to grow one or more seeds so that new plants can grow.
Why have a pollinator garden?
Certain pollinators like bees and monarch butterflies are decreasing in numbers because of pesticide use and humans building on land that was once native habitats for plants and pollinators. By planting a pollinator garden in your yard you are helping to restore that lost habitat, and hopefully allowing the populations of pollinators to increase so they are available to pollinate our plants that produce the food we eat.
The Kaegebein Pollinator Garden
Our garden was created in 2016. The Fish and Wildlife Service helped to create the garden and provided the soil and mulch for the paths. The layout was created by a group of fifth grade students. The first plants we put into the garden were swamp milkweed. We hope to have a monarch watch station in the future. Our goal is to have as many native plants as we can from New York State. Our Garden Club students collected milkweed seeds from last year’s plants and planted them this spring. Students are responsible for maintenance of the garden and use it as an outdoor classroom to learn about pollination and pollinators.
Perennial Scavenger Hunt
See if you can find the following perennials in the pollinator garden!
English Lavender Bellflower Alaska Shasta Daisy
Penstemon Russian Sage Cardinal Flower
False Sunflower Liatris Bee Balm
Gloriosa Daisy Yarrow Lupine
Meadow Sage Chaenomeles Swamp Milkweed
Coneflower Butterfly Weed Edelweiss
Joe Pye Weed Tickseed Rumex