POLLINATOR GARDENS From the Portage Trail Group
September 2022
“Pollinators [bees, wasps, butterflies and other insects] are essential to life as we know it on Planet Earth . . . If pollinators were to disappear, 87 to 90 percent of the plants would also disappear. Not only would such a loss be a fatal blow to humans, it would take most other multicellular species with it as well. . . .” - Douglas Tallamy, Nature’s Best Hope
Grim reports of the declining number of insects, including bees and butterflies, has spurred a movement to establish pollinator gardens, that is, gardens designed to attract pollinating insects. Pollinator gardens feature native perennials, which may or may not be bright and attractive, but they have flowers that insects are accustomed to.
Several years ago a group of PTG activists - Guy Marentette, Mary Starbuck, and Mary Ogden, together with Don Gordon of the Cascade Locks Park Association - created a large pollinator garden, auspiciously on the site of the first great Akron factory, the massive flour mill on the old Ohio & Erie Canal just north of downtown Akron. The mill flourished in the 1870’s and 1880’s; now, nearly a century and a half later, part of the factory site has been returned to nature, in a very specific, useful, indeed essential restoration.
The following photos document the garden as it exists in 2022. It is about 30 feet long and half as wide and now, in late-August, one of the more lively places in the area, alive with bumblebees, honey bees and dozens of other bees, plus monarch and swallowtail butterflies, wasps, and other flying insects.
The PTG pollinator garden in downtown Akron may be a bit ambitious for the individual homeowner, but a smaller version can also be useful, particularly if it takes the place of lawn or an area overtaken with invasive, non-native plants. Join the movement to save our pollinating insect friends.
Photos courtesy of Guy Marentette:
