Turf to Pollinator Gardens2
Creating Pollinator Havens With Native Plant Gardens
Do you want to attract more pollinators in your yard? We’ll show you how, through Turf to Pollinator Gardens. Alongside Wilderness in the City and other partners, we planted six native plant pollinator gardens in Twin Cities regional parks.
The gardens replaced turf grass lawn, which offers little food for pollinators. Each garden is unique, demonstrating how native plants can thrive in various site conditions. The native plantings benefit not just pollinators but also birds and other wildlife — and they enhance soil and water quality in the parks.
Educational signs offer information about the plants and you can learn more about each park project below. We hope the gardens inspire park visitors to take home ideas for using native plants in their own projects!
Summary
In 2024, we completed the installation of six new native gardens. The gardens add up to 50,000 square feet of new pollinator habitat. Across 37 planting events, more than 550 amazing volunteers invested their time to help us plant and care for these gardens. They included students, corporate groups, families, friends, and individuals. Thank you!
We know that dedication to continued maintenance will result in additional invested funds and we are grateful to our partners for continuing to care for these projects alongside community volunteers.
This project, in partnership with Wilderness in the City, is funded by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF) as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR). Additional funding is being provided by Lawns to Legumes, St. Paul Audubon Society, and our parks partners.
We contracted with several Blue Thumb Partners, named above, to help realize the gardens.