Tewksbury Girl Scouts Create Pollinator Preservation Garden

Girl Scouts Camryn DeAngelis and Claire Petrone created a Pollinator Preservation Garden featuring plants that support native pollinators from spring through fall.

Camryn DeAngelis And Claire Petrone, Girl Scouts with Tewksbury Troop 82083 created a Pollinator Preservation Garden at the Wynn School as their Silver Award project. An idea was formed during the winter months when the two girls participated in a winter seed sowing event. They brought the proposal to the Girl Scout Council, who approved the project.

Claire worked with the Principal of the Wynn School, John Weir, to find a location for the Pollinator Garden. The two girls grew and collected pollinator plants, then planted a 24 by 30 foot garden. The garden is part of the Pollinator Pathway (www.pollinator-pathway.org), a national program to encourage the establishment of native plant gardens to provide food and habitat for native bees, butterflies, birds.

The plants selected for a Pollinator Preservation Garden are local to the geographic region and straight species (not cultivars). Additionally, selection is made based on plants that support native pollinators from Spring through Fall. The Tewksbury Garden Club also assisted with the project. Bees are the primary pollinators of plants, and attention is paid to find plants that support native bee pollinators.

Several types of bumblebees are native to this region but are at-risk as the plants they depend on are often not available in the environment. Claire and Camryn selected plants known to support a varied bee population as described by Dr Robert Gegear, a well-known bee researcher at UMass Dartmouth. (www.gegearlab.weebly.com)

In addition to bees, other pollinators include wasps, beetles, moths, butterflies, and hummingbirds. The garden is young and needs to grow, but it will soon be supporting pollinators and providing valuable nectar, pollen and habitat for native insects and birds.