Here’s a contest where everyone wins
Last month I announced a garden contest, asking you to tell me what you do in your garden to provide food and habitat for our pollinators. I wanted to know: Do you grow plants that attract specific insects such as monarch butterflies, or do you plant a wide variety of nectar- and pollen-producing flowers to attract and support more species? Do you plant mostly (or all) native species? Have you created a meadow garden of native plants?
Waiting for responses was like watching and waiting for seeds to sprout: mysterious and unpredictable. I received one entry immediately and two more a few days later. After several weeks of checking my mailbox and finding nothing, I thought those three entries were all I was going to get. Then three more submissions showed up in a flurry right before the deadline date.
When I had just a few entries in hand, the decision of “winner” was easy, and I had a first, second, and third place in mind. With six in the pool, I had to re-evaluate. They were all so good, showing creativity not just in the various gardens but also in how the details were presented. And the entries were all so different. How could I possibly rank them?
It took me a few weeks, but I finally figured a way out of the dilemma. When I looked at each entry as a separate category, I could see the merits of each more clearly. And, while I did end up selecting a first, second, and third-place winner – because that’s how contests work – I feel that there’s not only a three-way tie for first place, but also that each of these gardens and their gardeners are winners.
Here’s how I sorted them: Raising Pollinators: Barb and Don Knabb
Pollinator Gardening in Community: Shirley Walton
Educating about Pollinators: Sharon Richardson
Pollinator “Whispering:” Deb and Brian Kates
Small Property Pollinator Gardening: Dianne Houghtaling
The Poetry of Pollinators: Denise Teitsworth
The actual first-place winners are Don and Barb Knabb of West Chester. They described how they progressed from deliberately planting native species for pollinators, to taking the extra step of raising mason bees. Second place goes to the community Pollinator Garden at the Tel Hai retirement center in Honey Brook. Gardener Shirley Walton described how the volunteers at the retirement center have expanded their original butterfly garden to a pollinator garden. In third place is Sharon Richardson, of Chester Springs, who is a Chester County Master Gardener. She used the contest as an opportunity to share some of what she’s learned about the importance of planting native plants that support not only pollinators but other wildlife as well.
Definitely in a class of its own is the entry submitted by Brian and Deb Kates, of Coatesville. I can’t wait to share Brian’s experience of being shadowed by a monarch butterfly! Dianne Houghtaling, of Lansdale, described the flower beds on her small property that host many pollinator species. And Denise Teitsworth, of West Chester, took the time to turn her entry into a rhyming poem, titled “Flora for Fauna.”
I am so grateful to all of these people for sharing their pollinator garden stories with me. I’m in the process of arranging to visit as many of these gardens as I can. Words are great, and some folks included photos with their write-ups, but nothing beats actually seeing a garden and talking with gardeners in person. I look forward to sharing their stories with you. Overall, they’re a reminder that whether we plant a small garden bed or devote an entire property to native plants for pollinators, everybody wins.