The end of the school year brings many changes; this year Mapletown High School saw the installation of a native plant garden on its property. Penn State Extension Greene County Master Gardener trainee Tammy Jamieson, a graduate of Mapletown High School and Penn State University, designed and coordinated the installation as her Master Gardener graduation project with the assistance of her certified Master Gardener mentor Terri Laird.
The high school’s maintenance faculty constructed the raised bed and the 2022-2023 Envirothon team and their advisor Amber Burkett carried out the heavy lifting of spreading seven tons of soil, laying out cardboard for weed control, spreading mulch, and planting the plants.
Native Pennsylvania plants were chosen for the garden. These plant species originally occurred naturally in this region without human introduction and have formed a symbiotic relationship with native wildlife, such as bees and butterflies. Specifically, plants such as golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea), scarlet beebalm (Mondarda didyma), purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), showy goldenrod (Solidago speciosa), and New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) were all chosen for their high value to local pollinators. The garden was designed to provide nectar sources for bees, butterflies, and other pollinators throughout the entire growing season. The earliest flowers begin blooming in April and the later blooms will last until frost. Clumps of three specimens each of twenty different perennial species were planted for a total of 60 plants in a 24’ by 12’ raised bed.
The idea for this garden was born from the hope that people in the community would learn of the plight of our disappearing pollinators and would want to incorporate some native plant species into their landscapes. Or better yet, plant a native garden of their own. Each garden that is created, no matter the size, increases nesting habitat and foraging areas for bees and butterflies. This project provides a creative way for students and community members to learn how to be part of a solution to help save and protect our native pollinators.
Most of the species in the garden, including three species of milkweed (Asclepias spp.), serve as host plants to butterfly or moth larva, meaning butterflies and moths can use these plants to reproduce. Endangered monarch butterflies can only lay eggs on plants in the milkweed family because they are the only plants on which the caterpillars can feed. According to a study by Chip Taylor, director of Monarch Watch, which was published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (vol. eight, August 2020), one of the most significant drivers in the dramatic decrease in the population of monarchs was the disappearance of milkweed plants across the country due to herbicide use and urbanization.
Wild bee populations have also been declining over the years. A report by Kelsey Kopec and Lori Burd, published by the Center for Biological Diversity, studied population trends of 1,400 wild bee species in North America and Hawaii. According to this report, 52% of these 1,400 species have populations that declined by 40% or more, and almost one in four of the species studied was threatened with extinction. One of the leading causes of this decline was habitat loss.
Many ornamental plants commonly included in household landscaping are mainly from Asia, Europe, or even tropical areas. These plants have evolved separately from local insects, so they oftentimes are poisonous or inedible to our local insect fauna. Grass lawns, which according to a 2005 NASA-sponsored study cover 40 million acres of land in the United States, are devoid of biodiversity and require immense maintenance. Most of them are mowed before plants bloom or go to seed thereby offering little to no food or shelter to bees or butterflies. This makes our yards like deserts to our pollinators. Harmful chemicals such as fertilizers and pesticides are often used to perfect the aesthetics of lawns and these chemicals can be very harmful to all insects, including bees and butterflies.
Reducing the size of lawns by planting native plants is a great way to invite bees, butterflies, and even birds into a yard because these plants provide food, shelter, and nesting materials. Native plants also do not require the use of chemicals and are easier to grow in our native soils since they have evolved in these conditions over time. To support nature and help bridge the ever-widening gap of habitat loss and degradation, every household landscape needs to contain more native plants than non-native plants.
So, the next time you are in the neighborhood, stop by and visit the garden and admire the beauty of the plants and the insects that thrive there. For more information about the Mapletown High School pollinator habitat and for more photos, visit the student-created website at https://sites.google.com/segsd.org/mapletown-pollinator-habitat/home.
The installation was sponsored by Lewis Development Resources, R.G. Johnson, and the Southern Laurel Highlands Plant and Pest Management Group.
