Pollinator Project News and Needs

The Rock Point Pollinator Project, now starting its third year, is going to show some real results this spring and summer. (For those who know what good soil looks like, it already has, but the cover crop of clover is going to give way to pollinator-attracting flowers and shrubs, starting in May and throughout the summer.

This 2.5 acre project, turning the overgrown and unused space under our solar trackers, into a pollinator meadow and an 11,700 square foot demonstration garden, will serve as a model and educational center for people interested in pollinators, and how to make their own property a pollinator-supportive habitat.

Major funding for this project has come from the Episcopal Church, USA’s Care for Creation Initiative and the Davis Conservation Foundation. We’re still awaiting results from smaller grant applications and have been promised plants from several individual donors.

On Saturday, April 27th, we will be participating in the Vermont Community Garden Network’s “Day in the Dirt.” We are looking for fifteen volunteers to create our Rock Point Pollinator Project team for the day and accomplish two tasks before we can start planting – bringing water to the garden site via a shallow trench, hose and commercial sprinkler; and fencing the garden with deer fencing and a gate.

We are also looking for many one-time volunteers to help us pot hundreds of bare root plants when they arrive. Since we don’t know exactly when that will be, we’re compiling a list of people we can contact for that job!

Garden Awaiting Cover Crop

And in May we will need volunteers to help plant the garden!! Again, we’ll take names anytime and notify people when the day(s) are set.

Lastly, we’re looking for three more people who’d like to join our Rock Point Volunteer Docent team on an ongoing basis (see the flyer on Volunteers).

Here’s the garden awaiting its cover crop of clover and spring planting!