Our Pollinator Garden is growing, thanks to some hardworking residents!
In 2018 St. Giles hired Ben Pick local gardener and owner of Meadow Edge garden services to oversee work in the Memorial Garden. With his guidance, the Memorial Garden is now registered as a Monarch Waystation and has been certified by Asheville Greenworks as a Certified Pollinator Habitat.
Ben brings new life to Deerfield’s Memorial Garden:
“In addition to being a memorial garden remembering and celebrating human life, I think it’s imperative to create habitat for all sorts of creatures and provide a place for animal life. That should be a main objective of any garden, really. We want to provide food for pollinators in all stages of life, whether the host foliage for young juvenile insects or nectar for adults, as well as providing proper habitat (i.e. twigs, stems, leaves, a layered structure of perennials, shrubs and trees for birds, etc.). In an increasingly fragmented ecosystem, it’s quite important to create spaces that can facilitate these needs. I try to use a lot of southeast US natives as well, which specifically accommodate our local insect and bird life.”
Ben hopes that these certifications will encourage others to discuss and learn more and hopefully do the same in their garden spaces.
“The garden is meant to be a calming, inviting space, a place to reflect, but it’s also a living place and hopefully a place that generates ideas and brings joy long term.”