PKRC Pollinator Gardens
SPRING IS IN THE AIR AND SO ARE THE POLLINATORS (HOPEFULLY)
May is a perfect time to propagate a pollinator garden at your house or perhaps a non-profit or school or community garden. Pollinators are essential for human food security, but their populations have fallen catastrophically under the combined assault of habitat loss, pesticides, and disease. These gardens can attract bees, wasps, butterflies, ladybugs, birds etc. Here in Texas we are in the migration path of Monarch butterflies whose population has been dwindling, but recently seen a resurgence due to emphasis on nurturing habitats. Monarchs lay their eggs in milkweed plants and there are many varieties of native Texas plants that support a host of pollinators. Interested in finding which plants will thrive in your neck of the woods? Try this handy site: https://www.pollinator.org/guides.
Here’s a small project my home club, Pilot Knob Rotary Club in Denton Texas planted on May 3 at Mayberry Gardens, an assisted living center.
This is the Club’s fourth project having installed gardens at another assisted living center, at Serve Denton, a location that provides offices for 20 non-profits and a food pantry, and at Court Appointed Special Advocates of Denton County. No project is too small to tackle.
Pollinator projects are a perfect match for Rotary’s strengths: our talent for creating fun, community-wide service projects, our skill in building partnerships across every sector of society, and our District and international networks that make it easy to replicate effective projects. Pollinator gardens literally change the landscape, proving to communities that they have the power to protect the biodiversity we humans need to survive.
For more information please visit the Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group’s Operation Pollination site: https://esrag.org/operation-pollination/
Submitted by Mike Weaver co-director for the environment for the 5790 District
940-391-9614
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