By Grace Leightheiser, Adirondack Pollinator Project Intern

St. Bernard’s Elementary School in Saranac Lake now boasts a beautiful pollinator garden, positioned prominently by the sidewalk at their River Street entrance. The garden was installed in between rain showers on July 7th with the help of Andrea Kilbourne-Hill, the school’s principal, and several volunteers, including two young students. The kids were especially helpful when it came to transporting loads of the heavy soil and compost!

Beyond the great visibility of the garden for passersby, AdkAction is thrilled with the new site because the educational component we strive to incorporate in our Pollinator Project is so natural for this collaboration with the school. Kilbourne-Hill says students will get to learn about the pollinator-friendly plant varieties growing in the new garden and work with their science teacher to create descriptive labels to accompany the beds. As the plants establish themselves over the next several months, students will be able to track the garden’s growth and look out for bees and butterflies coming through!

Rather than sticking to the typical honeycomb-shaped arrangement, the installation team decided to position the three hexagonal beds in a caterpillar-like fashion for optimal viewing from the street. The creative design looks awesome and is especially fitting for the hopeful attraction of certain pollinator species at their caterpillar stage! If you are local to the area, keep your eyes peeled for the garden the next time you are passing by Lake Flower!