Saturday, June 17, kicked off National Pollinator Week all over the country, and Lookout Mountain celebrated in grand style at the new Fairyland Mountain Hall in Lookout Mountain, Ga. Reflection Riding, Lookout Mountain Beautiful Garden Club and Bee City USA sponsored a morning of activities for kids, the youngest stewards of our planet. Face painting by artists Diane Reed and Roses Colmore was a must for all the children, as was donning butterfly attire and being photographed in front of a stunning backdrop of trees.
The front lawn of FMH was brimming with folks perusing the tents lined up on the sidewalk, and lots of folks took home bluebird houses from the Tennessee Bluebird Society. These particular houses are built to exact specifications for these birds, making them as safe as possible from predators such as snakes and raccoons.
Tennessee Valley Wild Ones offered all manner of information, from the importance of native plants to dealing with invasive plants. Pollinator plant kits were available for both sun and shade as well as container gardening.
There were several short seminars that addressed how to garden with native plants both in shady spots as well as sunny places. And, Reflection Riding was there with a great variety of native plants for your garden, from native asters that bloom in fall and provide important food when the pickin’s are slim to gorgeous purple hyssop and mountain mint, all total rock stars when it comes to breathtaking plantings and sustaining our wildlife.
Bird and butterfly walks took place across the street at the Joe Wilson Park and Fairy Trail Gardens, both of which were incredibly inspirational and informative.
Anyone who routinely digs in the dirt knows that gardening is therapeutic. But if you add native plants to your yard, you get the added benefit of attracting butterflies, bees and birds AND helping sustain them!
You might think you can’t make any difference planting native pollinators if you don’t have much of a yard, but that’s not true. Homegrown National Park, a movement spearheaded by Dr. Doug Tallamy, encourages every single person to add hardworking native pollinator plants to their yards, gardens, window boxes, decks or front stoops! If we all join together and add these important plants, it will indeed make a difference for our important insects! Learn more at homegrownnationalpark.org.
by Ferris Robinson
The front lawn of FMH was brimming with folks perusing the tents lined up on the sidewalk, and lots of folks took home bluebird houses from the Tennessee Bluebird Society. These particular houses are built to exact specifications for these birds, making them as safe as possible from predators such as snakes and raccoons.
Tennessee Valley Wild Ones offered all manner of information, from the importance of native plants to dealing with invasive plants. Pollinator plant kits were available for both sun and shade as well as container gardening.
There were several short seminars that addressed how to garden with native plants both in shady spots as well as sunny places. And, Reflection Riding was there with a great variety of native plants for your garden, from native asters that bloom in fall and provide important food when the pickin’s are slim to gorgeous purple hyssop and mountain mint, all total rock stars when it comes to breathtaking plantings and sustaining our wildlife.
Bird and butterfly walks took place across the street at the Joe Wilson Park and Fairy Trail Gardens, both of which were incredibly inspirational and informative.
Anyone who routinely digs in the dirt knows that gardening is therapeutic. But if you add native plants to your yard, you get the added benefit of attracting butterflies, bees and birds AND helping sustain them!
You might think you can’t make any difference planting native pollinators if you don’t have much of a yard, but that’s not true. Homegrown National Park, a movement spearheaded by Dr. Doug Tallamy, encourages every single person to add hardworking native pollinator plants to their yards, gardens, window boxes, decks or front stoops! If we all join together and add these important plants, it will indeed make a difference for our important insects! Learn more at homegrownnationalpark.org.
by Ferris Robinson