Garden Club and City Collaborate on Pollinator Garden

The newest addition to the Oxcart Pantry property is the Pollinator Pantry, a pollinator garden installed on Friday, October 8. This new garden includes native plants such as Black-eyed Susans, Bronze Fennel, Milkweed, Coneflower, Obedient Plant, Phlox, Bee Balm, Butterfly Weed, Daisies, Garlic Chives, Spiderwort, Jerusalem Artichoke and Sedum. This garden will provide food and habitat for birds, bees and other insects, while also filtering stormwater and stabilizing the soil. The garden will also attract wildlife that will make the nearby community garden more successful and increase harvests. Plots in the community garden are tended by volunteer gardeners and a significant percentage of produce grown is donated to the Pantry for client distribution.

This garden was made possible through collaboration of many partners. Thanks to the North Olmsted Service Department for preparing the land and the North Olmsted Garden Club for donating the plants. The City of Westlake donated the leaf humus and the Oxcart Pantry purchased the materials for the stone border. An extra special thank you to Barb Geisinger for spearheading the effort and the North Olmsted Garden Club for helping design and install the garden with assistance from city staff.

See photos from our planting day below. Looking forward, the Garden Club plans to install an informational sign using grant funds recently awarded through the Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation Action Grant Program.