TREE club plants pollinator garden

Photos courtesy of  Kihwal Lee

When Uni said goodbye to the math house and the Hue house, everyone wondered the same thing: what would go in the empty space? For months, the lot remained abandoned, but now students are finally taking action and using the space productively. TREE club has planted a pollinator garden in the space close to the road.

The purpose of a pollinator garden is to provide plants to pollinators so the pollinators can survive. Many of the plants that pollinators need are declining in population so pollinator gardens are vital in helping pollinators stay alive.

Junior Annemily Hoganson, a member of TREE club, discussed how the club decided to build the garden.“We were approached by Marianne Downey [Director of Advancement] and there was a donor who was interested in helping to fund a pollinator garden,” said Hoganson.

Hoganson said the club has focused on sustainability and reducing climate emissions, but they were ready to expand their scope.  “We wanted to do something that was more focused on animals and the environment so a pollinator garden fit really well with that.”

Hoganson believes that the garden will have a positive impact on Uni. “Hopefully it will be really pretty and people will enjoy seeing it and being around it and also, we’re hoping to use it to teach the Uni community about pollinators and the important role pollinators play.”

Hoganson said that the pollinator garden will not need much maintenance during the summer as well as during the school year. “TREE club is going to be maintaining it, but we’ve chosen plants that shouldn’t need a lot of maintenance so we shouldn’t have to worry about weeds, but we should be regularly taking care of it”

TREE club planted the garden on May 20th starting at noon. They encourage people to walk over and check it out during finals.