Purpose and Approach

The Pollinators’ and Bird Garden in Center County, Pennsylvania is the direct extension of an ongoing research agenda to understand and explain the recent decrease in pollinator and bird populations across the world. Conducted in close collaboration with a leading institution for pollinator research, the purpose of the garden is to disseminate knowledge on pollinator and bird habitats, and to demonstrate that healthy, functioning ecosystems are beautiful. The 3-acre garden now offers multiple new opportunities: 1) to directly convey and interpret scientific research being conducted on site, 2) to offer an engaging place for people to learn about pollinator and bird habitats, 3) and to inspire everyone to create habitats within their own private gardens, which could significantly grow healthier networks across the developed landscape.

Role

As prime consultant and lead designer, the landscape architect led the project from vision to completion in collaboration with a full consultant team. Within the landscape architect’s role, special emphasis was given to sculpting terrain to create rich and inspiring environments that reconnect people to pollinators and healthy habitats. In order to support the plant diversity needed to sustain this garden, we transformed the site’s fairly flat topography into a sculpted terrain. The creation of a varied ground plane allowed us to create a diverse set of conditions and habitats, and to create a sense of immersion and connection to plants and pollinators. What was previously pasture land for grazing has now expanded to include mixed woodland, deciduous woodland, shady glade, sunny edge, meadow, orchard, shrub edge, and wetland typologies.

Context

The garden’s location is significant; the distinctive topography of Center County, Pennsylvania has led to the formation of a patchwork agricultural landscape with a diverse set of habitats and food sources for pollinators. The garden directly references distinct landscape types found throughout the region in order to study and research local birds and pollinators, and to offer an engaging place for people to learn about pollinators, their habitats, and the fundamental role they play in sustaining our own agriculture and communities.

Special factors

As a joint effort between our design team as well as entomology and horticulture experts, the creation of the garden relied on clear goals and principles to govern the layout of the garden. Key research informed the design criteria for distinct spaces and exhibits within the garden. Depending on the time of year, and association with temporal bloom events, various stories and interrelationships emerge to create a dramatic educational framework.

Beyond creating distinct habitats and conveying research narratives, we focused on creating powerful experiences allowing people to more closely observe and connect to the world of pollinators. It can be difficult for people to observe pollinators when their scale is so different from our own. We realized that in order for people to become aware of the micro scale world of pollinators, we would need to bring people closer. We designed the garden to bridge different scales: creating a sense of progression, and building greater proximity and intimacy between people and pollinators. From an initial sense of distance, as if approaching the habitat of the disc from above, visitors slowly find themselves immersed within, engaging pollinators directly at eye level. We played with this situation throughout the garden, at times reversing the relationship: from pollinators in the world of people, to people immersed in the world of pollinators.

Environmental Sensitivity and Sustainability

The ultimate goals of the Pollinator’ and Bird Garden are to enhance biodiversity, encourage appreciation and care for the natural world, and to inspire people to take steps to support native plants, pollinators, and birds in their own home landscapes. The garden provides unique habitat enhancements for both insects and birds, including solitary bee nesting structures, bird feeders, bird nest boxes, wetland areas, and two standing dead trees, or “snags,” to attract predatory birds such as raptors and owls. A beehive structure creates a protective pod with the garden – a shading device hosting and inviting people to discover a functioning bee hive within.

In its first year, the Pollinators’ and Bird Garden showcased 340 hardy plant taxa, of which 266, or 78%, are native species or selections thereof. Plant selections were targeted toward species that would provide maximum life-cycle support for native insects – particularly pollinators – and the region’s resident and migratory birds. Baseline entomology research conducted in the new garden indicated that hundreds of insect species, including over 60 species of bees and 25 species of flower-visiting flies, were active on the site during summer and autumn 2021. In addition, 53 bird species have been observed in the new garden since its opening.

Significance

“The Insect Apocalypse” has been a central topic in the media, with significant articles shared with the broader public via magazines, newspapers, blogs, television shows, and throughout social media. The issue of pollinator species disappearing across the world is a problem that is critical to the continuation of our own existence, yet a sense of inertia or lack of clear direction remains in the face of such a large environmental and economic disaster. The Pollinators’ and Bird Garden responds to this urgent state of affairs by connecting people with the issue of pollinator decline in specific, tangible ways.

This project offers an inspiring model merging art and science to inform the making of resilient landscapes. It highlights the importance for planning and design professions to partner with scientists and public institutions in order to address global issues such as climate change and loss of biological diversity. It promotes action and inspires confidence for the larger public to address critical environmental issues – including at the scale of one’s own yard. Further, it illustrates how a multidisciplinary approach embracing art, horticulture and science can respond to global issues in innovative, collaborative, and generative ways.