Pollinator Garden & Monarch Waystation
Planted in the spring of 2018, Brookdale Park’s Pollinator Garden is located just south of the playground area near the overlook. An Essex County Master Gardener and Environmental Steward, Jean Greeley, designed the garden to provide food and habitat for butterflies, bees, and other pollinating insects. Once covered in invasive species, the garden is now home to over 90 native plants. Native plants provide butterflies with the nectar and foliage they need to complete their lifecycle.
The original small patch of pollinator plants slowly grew through the years to become a much larger site with four sections, each with its own micro habitat that supports plants with differing needs. The original “Pollinator Patch” is similar to a meadow habitat, with moderate to dry soil in mostly full sun. The “Milkweed Slope” was named for the steeply sloped spot where the original, naturally occurring common milkweed grew and became the inspiration for the garden project. Its dry and rocky conditions support erosion control plants, like grasses and sedges. The section of the site under the large tulip tree became the “Woodland Garden” and supports plants that thrive in dry shade. Just uphill from the woodland garden there are native shade-loving shrubs and groundcovers and has been named the “Shady Slope” for its almost total shade.
Stone-lined footpaths were later added; later still, the garden arches. The last of the landscaping is the narrow, inner pathways in the Pollinator Patch making the inner garden more accessible for work, or to just wander and observe our pollinators more closely. Some might find sitting on the large boulder - the “Sitting Rock” - a comfortable place to rest.
The garden is a designated Monarch Waystation, which means it provides milkweed and nectar resources necessary for monarchs to produce successive generations and to sustain their migration to Mexico each fall where they overwinter. The milkweeds in the garden are prime breeding spots for the monarchs in summer. As part of the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project from the University of Minnesota, Ms. Greeley monitors the garden weekly--counting eggs, larvae, chrysalides, and butterflies.
Ms. Greeley continues to develop and maintain the Pollinator Garden with funding and volunteers from the Brookdale Park Conservancy.
