Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
Bangor Daily News
Multiple generations came together to build this Bangor pollinator garden
By Elizabeth Walztoni,
23 days ago
Penny Shar and Stellos Tavantzis don’t grow much food in their Bangor yard because of lead in the soil. But they were able to plant a garden providing food for native pollinators from bees to birds to ants thanks to the help of a multigenerational group.
The low-maintenance project makes the most out of a small urban yard and, they hope, will have a positive impact on the natural world.
After Tavantzis had a stroke last year, Shar wanted an easier option for her yard on Elizabeth Avenue, off Hammond Street. Two people who once mowed the lawn, Jerome Herrick and Alexis Haskell, are now lending a hand tearing it out to replace it with a pollinator garden. Herrick, a retired custodian, and Tavantzis, a retired professor of plant pathology, are close friends from working together at the University of Maine.
Alexis Haskell plants a tulsi seedling in Penny Shar’s Bangor backyard. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN
Laura Nobel, a Brewer resident who is learning sustainable landscaping design, planned the design of the garden.
Nobel was interested in the project partly because of the role pollinators play in the food system, she said. Their populations are declining , and she sees the garden as a way to help them survive to do their jobs and help people survive.
“There’s no person on Earth that can be a bee,” she said.
Penny Shar, Stellos Tavantzis and Einstein the dog look out over the pollinator garden they are replacing their Bangor lawn with. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN
Nobel focused on providing food for insects and birds. Honeybees may be the best-known pollinators, but dozens of native insects and even birds pollinate plants more efficiently than honeybees do.
People forget that even small urban gardens can be “havens of diversity,” she said. Some native bee species have such small ranges that they can spend their lives in a backyard.
Different plants suit different pollinators. Long, thin flowers are attracting hummingbirds, while alliums attract bees and butterflies will land on swamp milkweed and lupine.
Penny Shar, right, and Einstein the terrier watch a pollinator garden take shape in Shar’s back yard, which was all grass a few weeks ago. Laura Nobel, left, designed the garden and is creating it with the help of Alexis Haskell, center. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN
“We’ve seen them all since we started,” Nobel said on Wednesday, watching an ant carry a flower petal through one of the beds.
When designing, she considered the soil, light and drainage conditions in each section of the yard, when each plant flowers and the visual impact.
As she and Haskell dug, they found bricks, roofing material, glass, pieces of china and asphalt. Shar’s neighborhood was a landfill over a century ago, another reason she wouldn’t grow much food herself there.
In two weeks, Nobel and Haskell had cut most of the grass out of the back yard. If they leave some of the dying plants in the yard this fall rather than clearing them out, the insects can spend the winter living in them.
Laura Nobel lines a plant bed with cardboard for her “lasagna” composting method in a Bangor back yard on Wednesday. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN
The two shook the dirt off the roots, put down a layer of discarded cardboard from neighbors, added some shredded newspaper (22 years of the Bangor Daily News, to be specific) and leaf waste, then tossed the grass in Shar’s compost pile. Nobel uses the “lasagna” method of composting, adding these layers of material into the ground.
Wood chips came from the Orono dump in Herrick’s truck. Tavantzis supervises fertilizing and watering while Einstein the cairn terrier keeps an eye out for critters.
The group said they felt grateful for each other and for the experience of planning, creating and enjoying the garden together.
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
Welcome to NewsBreak, an open platform where diverse perspectives converge. Most of our content comes from established publications and journalists, as well as from our extensive network of tens of thousands of creators who contribute to our platform. We empower individuals to share insightful viewpoints through short posts and comments. It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency: our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. We strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation. Join us in shaping the news narrative together.
Comments / 0