Ecology Challenge 2020: A Pollinator Garden for WFCF

Each year from 2017 to 2020, Grow Native Massachusetts organized an annual fundraiser plus community service project that we called the Ecology Challenge. This is the webpage we used to promote and document our 2020 project, re-published so you can learn more about the origins of the pollinator garden at WFCF.

This year, we have teamed up with Waltham Fields Community Farm— to provide leadership, technical assistance, and the skills of our many volunteers— for the restoration of one of their perennial garden beds as a native plant pollinator garden. Diverse populations of native pollinators are key to sustaining functional and stable ecosystems, and these insects depend on native plants, sometimes exclusively, to supply their nutritional needs. Together with the Farm, we will establish a garden rich with plants that provide food and habitat to a wide variety of native pollinator species, benefiting both crops on the farm as well as the surrounding natural landscape.

Project Benchmarks
Project Planning
Throughout August and September we assembled the project team, including staff and volunteers from both Grow Native Massachusetts and Waltham Fields Community Farm. Our work included site assessment, running soil tests, design and plant selection, plant procurement (always an interesting process when working with native plants) and overall project planning.
September 25 – Planting Day!
With our dedicated volunteer group (appropriately social distanced and masked) we finished our site preparation and pre-weeding work, and installed our garden full of native pollinator plants— emphasizing species of special value to bumblebees because of their importance to pollinating so many vegetable and fruit crops. We planted hundreds of plants representing approximately 25 species on this site of approximately 900 square feet. All in one day!
October 6 – A Lessons Learned Webinar
Together with the Farm, we are excited to document our combined efforts and results, creating a case study that can be used to educate our communities about the process of establishing a native plant pollinator garden, and to help more people understand the connections between native plant landscapes and organic farming. All donors to the Ecology Challenge were invited to this webinar to thank you, discuss the project in detail, show you the before and after, and share the lessons learned! WATCH VIDEO
The Challenge: Our Site Before Planting

The landscape we are transforming may have seemed a bit empty, but we were not starting entirely from scratch. Like any classic old field site, it is home to a mix of weedy grasses and wildflowers. Some of these “weeds,” like goldenrod and fleabane, have a lot of ecological value— and we will take advantage of their presence, incorporating them into the design of our garden and encouraging their continued seed germination.

Click on photos above to enlarge and see the full image.
The Emerging Results: Our Site Just After Planting

On September 25 we spent a lovely fall day planting, and can't wait to see this garden grow into a thriving habitat for bumblebees and other insects— benefiting the crops and ecological health of the farm. THANK YOU to our 16 wonderful volunteers, who worked in shifts to weed the site, plant 230 native wildflowers and shrubs, and spread leaf mulch over the 900 sq. ft. area. Some of the plants were swarming with pollinators the moment we brought them on site.
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We have raised $20,227 to date!
OUR ORIGINAL GOAL = $20,000.

Thank You for helping us to meet and exceed our goal! We are very happy to still accept your gift in support of the Challenge.

Your support helps to fund the costs of this new pollinator garden, and provides much-needed funding for our programs throughout the year. Thank you, especially to our wonderful lead donor who set up the fundraising challenge, and matched the first $10,000 donated, dollar for dollar! Now, we are working to surpass our goal even more, to keep building our community programs. Your gift is tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.

PHOTO: Finishing the planting on September 25!