Visit with the Easton Pollinator Pathway at EGC Garden Mart on May 7th at the Easton Firehouse Green.
Helping you establish pollinator-friendly habitats and food sources for bees, butterflies and birds… Flowers, Herbs, and advice to help you get started!
In Easton, people seem to have a passion for nature. We strive to be good stewards of the land. We enjoy having a beautiful space for the kids to play and areas of privacy to unwind and breathe. More and more people in our community have shared the desire to learn more about creating gardens and outdoors spaces that support human health as well as nourish and foster pollinator health. Enter the Easton Garden Club and the Easton Pollinator Pathway project!
The Pollinator Pathway initiative provides free resources to help you establish pollinator-friendly habitats and food sources for bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinating insects and wildlife free from pesticides, fungicides and herbicides.
Join us in-person on May 7th at the Easton Firehouse Green for the our Easton Garden Mart and we will help you get started. We will have Pollinator friendly USDA certified organic Herbs from Gilbertie’s Organics, and for those who look forward to adding a butterfly medallion yard sign to your gardens, we will have the Pollinator Pathway signs for sale and pick up the day of the sale. There will be two categories of Gilbertie’s USDA Certified Organic Herbs for sale this year:
Herbs known to attract that pollinators (butterflies, bees, bird and other pollinators), and in some case serve as host plants for butterflies. We’ll have a Pollinator Herb Kit - 12 plants, 6 species - ready to plant, as well as, two top pollinator herb singles for this year’s sale.
Culinary herbs - we are offering a pre-planted herb gift container as well as hard to find specialty herbs for sale.
Getting started. Garden Club members and Master Gardeners will be on hand on May 7th to help you get started. We suggest starting this season with planting a planter or window box, incorporate native straight species into your existing gardens along side your favorites. You may consider planning and planting a native plant garden and or meadow. What is important is providing a succession of blooms from March to October that sustain our pollinators. Everyone can join the pollinator pathway by adding native pollinator-friendly plants, subtract a little lawn (cut high or reduce the size), and avoid the use of pesticides and lawn chemicals. Easton residents can add anywhere from one pollinator-friendly tree or planter, to a small pollinator garden, to a full meadow. If we miss you at Garden Mart, visit the EGC website where you will find a list of northeast native pollinator plants and links to our EGC Resource Library: Easton Pollinator Pathway page of our EGC website www.eastongardenclubofct.org
Learn about Native Ecotype plants (those plants which have co-evolved with the pollinators in our specific region here in Easton - ecoregion 59) and the role they play in your garden. What is remarkable about the native ecotype plants, aside from the important role they play in increasing biodiversity in support of a healthy food web, is their ability to thrive in our Easton ecoregion without much care, feeding or watering. Once established, they are not resource heavy.
In addition to the many individuals, families, and local establishments taking the pledge, The Easton Pollinator Pathway is a community effort with many partnering organizations. Join us as we learn and grow.
See you at Garden Mart on May 7th on the Easton Firehouse Green, I Center Road, Easton, CT. We are in person from 9 am to 12:30 pm
Jean Stetz-Puchalski, Easton Garden Club Conservation Chair