Ecological Design

Written By: Canty Worley | Issue: June 2024

The Pollinator Garden has been an ongoing project for the Peggy Crosby Center since 2018.

With generous support from our donors, The Laurel Garden Club, Highlands Chamber of Commerce, and many more, the garden has grown into a familiar and vibrant part of our Plateau community.

Nestled in a prominent intersection atop “Hospital Hill,” the pollinator garden is frequented by scores of visitors.

More than just a lovely garden, it’s an example of sustainable, ecological landscape design. With low maintenance care techniques. zero waste, self-seeding, and self-sustaining plant population the garden grows with little labor. Organic matter stays on site.

Little-to-no additions (plants, fertilizers, or mulch) are needed. In fact, many native plant species have found their way into the welcoming garden on their own.

Our plantings have thrived as anticipated. Plant additions have extended the garden’s seasonal beauty with an earlier spring and a later fall. Plants are helping control erosion. Happily, some thrive in even difficult growing conditions, their roots stabilizing sloping land.

Just as Peggy’s facility nurtures charities and small businesses inside, they foster pollinators, the ecosystem, and grounds outside. The garden is beneficial to a host of wildlife throughout the year, with biodiversity ever-increasing.

Grounds are edged and delineated with a biodegradable fencing technique known as “wattle.” Small tree branches and saplings are woven together to make an attractive and definitive border. In time, this eco-friendly fencing creates habitat for insects, beneficial fungi, and soil microbes in the process.

Focusing on native plants, regular maintenance has been reduced to a minimum. Working primarily by hand, the environmental impact of gas-powered mowers, trimmers and blowers, with their noise and air pollution, is virtually eliminated.

Wandering native plants that find their way to the garden are as important as host plants. Nectar, leaves, pollen, seeds, and more are essential for sustenance (think Milkweed for Monarch caterpillars). Birds can be pollinators, too.

In addition to the garden’s established ecosystem, its botanicals are an aesthetic jewel right in Highlands’ heart.

While Peggy’s pollinator garden may be small, it plays a collective role with other eco-friendly gardens across our community, our nation, our world. Climate change casts a long shadow around the earth. Peggy is doing her part to not only shorten that shadow but serve as a role model and partner with others, groups like Rotoract, CNIP, HCLT, and the Highlands Plateau Greenway.

We think the possibilities for community involvement in projects like these have untapped potential, and we are very excited to be a part. Contact me for more info at [email protected].