AdkAction’s Adirondack Pollinator Project continues to buzz into 2019 with exciting new offerings and events. Last year we were awarded a $5,000 grant from Flow Hive, a honeybee hive designer/manufacturer, to purchase and equip a Mobile Pollinator Garden Trailer. The trailer, which is enclosed and 5ft by 10ft, will be custom painted and then outfitted with tools, seeds, plants, and expertise to assist in planting pollinator gardens all over the region. Our goal is to empower community groups and support the planting of 10-20 pollinator gardens throughout the Adirondacks this spring and summer. Applications are available online!
The Pollinator Project will again distribute free native wildflower seed packets and educational brochures about the importance of protecting native pollinator habitats. The new 2019 seed packets will feature a Showy Northeast Native Wildflower seed mix with over twenty-three types of wildflowers that attract pollinators. The individual packets each have about ten times the amount of seed contained in last year’s seed packets, and 20,000 packets will be distributed throughout the Adirondacks at pollinator events, AdkAction events, farmer’s markets and at our annual plant sale pick-ups. Bulk seed will also be used in the Mobile Pollinator Garden Trailer for larger projects and provided to a limited number of farmers as they experiment with interplanting.
Last year’s first AdkAction Pollinator Plant Sale was a huge success with more than 800 pollinator-friendly plants purchased for ADK gardens. The large #1-size pollinator plants are offered pre-sale, online thru May 31, but eager gardeners will want to order early for best selection. Cook and Gardener Nursery of Plattsburgh is providing all the neonicotinoid-insecticide-free pollinator plants for the plant sale. View the plant sale here.
Like last year, there are also several multi-plant complete pollinator gardens that may be ordered as a package to create larger gardens. These plants are guaranteed pesticide free and available for $10 each. Planting packages are available at 10% off. Plant pick-up dates are June 13th between 5:00-7:00 pm at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake; June 15th at Cook and Gardener Nursery in Plattsburgh between 11:00 am-2 pm; and June 5th at the Pollinator Symposium in North Creek.
Another first this year is the Adirondack Pollinator Symposium on June 5, 9 am-4pm at Tannery Pond Community Center in North Creek. The event will feature a keynote speaker, Benjamin Vogt, author of A New Garden Ethic: Lawn Gone and Gardening for Butterflies. Speakers from Xerces Society and Pollinator Conservation Association will also be featured. The all-day symposium is designed to provide farmers, groundskeepers, home and club gardeners and government agencies the knowledge to create and maintain pollinator-friendly landscapes. It will include breakout sessions for each group. Symposium registration, $40 inclusive of lunch, is open.
The Adirondack Pollinator Project is a project of AdkAction in collaboration with The Wild Center, Lake Placid Land Conservancy, and Paul Smith’s College. Our mission is to build an understanding of the local and global importance of pollinators and inspiring individual and collective action to help pollinators thrive.
