Native Plants and Pollinators at Woods

A visitor to our new pollinator garden.

     Until this past year we've done very little in regard to the landscaping in front of the school.  Mostly we've weeded and put down new mulch from time to time as needed to give a semblance of order and basic tidiness.
     Yet, I've always hoped that we could bring life and color to the front entrance in the form of a large pollinator garden that would attract butterflies, hummingbirds, beetles, moths, etc.  I've also thought it would be particularly interesting if we could get away with using only plants that are native to our North Carolina piedmont.
     Two of our teachers attended a summer institute at the NC Botanical Garden called Earth Partnership for Schools,  the goal of which is to help educators create rain gardens, native plants gardens, and/or restored natural habitats on schools grounds.  With their newly gained knowledge and with the help of students and landscape designer Matthew Arnsberger, we began design and installation of phase #1 of our pollinator garden this past spring.  It was great fun to have students, parents, and teachers all out front digging and planting, and our efforts have been rewarded with many blooms and butterflies to greet us at the front as we arrive and depart from school.

     Here are some glimpses of the installation:

And some of the fruits of our labors . . .