Pollinator Gardens

As part of a multi year effort, the Parks and Recreation Department finished the City's first official pollinator garden in Merrill Park in 2021. The garden was designed by Beth Fenstermacher, Assistant City Planner. 
With the help of UNH Law School students a pollinator garden has been added to White Park (pictured above) as well as a Monarch Waystation in Rollins Park. With the help of the Multicultural Festival another pollinator garden was planted in Keach Park in June 2022.

Our Zoo Garden (planted in spring of 2019) at the City Wide Community Center that not only contains plants with animal names, but also supports pollinators. (See photos below). 

Why Pollinator Gardens?

A pollinator garden is planted to provide nectar or pollen for a wide range of pollinating insects. Several important pollinators are threatened by habitat loss, including dramatic declines in native plant communities needed to support these animals.

Bees and other pollinators touch our lives every day in ways we may not realize. They are responsible for as much as one-third of the food and drinks that we consume, and contribute to the production of our clothes. They also help define our seasons: the flowering meadows of spring, the berries of summer, the pumpkins we carve for Halloween and eat at Thanksgiving, and the southward migration of Monarch butterflies.

What can you do?

When planting a garden choose native species that provide year-round interest, places and materials to build nests, and places to hibernate. Leave the dead plant materials through the winter to give the insects a place to hibernate. You can cut it back in the spring once you start to see the bugs out and know they are out of hibernation.

Start small! Even a 10x10 area will be a huge improvement. Provide not only a diversity of species, but also diversity in the type of plant (groundcovers, vines, shrubs, trees).