Pocket Pollinator Gardens

Pocket pollinator gardens could create necessary and beneficial “wild spaces” among the manicured commons.

There has been a movement in recent years to introduce pollinator gardens into downtown municipal areas and other densely zoned places to help feed our birds and bees, as well as provide ecosystem services like runoff mitigation and cooling through shade. Besides offering attractive scenery, pollinator gardens help to “rewild” our humanscapes and remind us that we share our world with many other interdependent organisms.

A pocket pollinator garden can inhabit a former common like a field, disused town lot, road median or traffic island. Such places exist in state of hiding in plain sight and can be activated in a naturally positive way by planting wildflowers and/or native shrubs and trees and encouraging the land to grow the way that it wants to, without any added inputs.

When a plot of land is converted to wild space or geared to pollination, several added no-cost benefits kick in - a town can save thousands of dollars in yearly maintenance costs by not mowing, trimming, fertilizing or spraying for pests. A pocket area can slowly become park-like with some planning, like creating selective paths and other non-intrusive interventions, becoming an asset to any community. A pollinator can even restore community character where urban/suburban blight has eroded a landscape that was once lush.

This rendering of a potential pollinator garden inhabits the site of a former car dealership, currently a mostly vacant and manicured common punctuated with park benches and small memorial.