Next summer will bring extra pops of color and buzzing bees to Webster Avenue, the sweet reward for a planting project sewn up last week on the lawn of the President’s House.
President Sian Leah Beilock met with students and alumni Friday morning to seed the wildflower bed, one of three dozen created since 2022 by the Class of 1989 Pollinator Project. The idea for the garden sprouted up when President Beilock heard from an alum about the effort, spearheaded by David Hammond ’89, to support birds, bees, wasps, butterflies, and moths by planting native wildflowers.
“It’s such a great project,” said Beilock, who admires the indigenous plants during her runs through Pine Park. “It’s really great to think about sustainability on our campus, and at my house as well.”
With coaching from Hammond, President Beilock scattered handfuls of tiny seeds across the half-moon-shaped patch of ground, which Facilities, Operation, and Management had tilled in advance.
Then it was time to tamp down the soil using a weighted garden roller, to help with germination. The seeds, a mixture of shade- and sun-loving species, include annuals and perennials such as foxglove, forget-me-nots, and Siberian wallflower, which boasts fragrant orange-yellow blooms.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the flowers,” Beilock said.
The garden was one of eight new Pollinator Project plantings scheduled on campus that day, which also included a hillside next to Anonymous Hall and parking lot islands at the McLaughlin Cluster Residence Halls.
Over the years, students from Dartmouth Sustainability and the Department of Environmental Studies have joined alums to plant and maintain the sites, says Hammond, founding director of Creating Habitats for Pollinators, a nonprofit that also supports the local gardens.
To date, the Pollinator Project has planted about two and a half acres of gardens in the Upper Valley, including plots at Kemeny Courtyard and the Sustainable Living Center created by a class Hammond co-taught last spring, ENVS 50 Environmental Problem Analysis and Policy Formulation, which focused on the work of Creating Habitats for Pollinators.
Each square foot is a win.
“Almost 70% of our food depends on pollinators, which are under threat,” but access to high-quality nutrients can help them thrive, says Hammond.
During the summer, healthy garden plots are full of flying insects going from flower to flower, “almost in a daze that there’s so much good food,” he says. “You can put your face right up to them, and they don’t even know you’re there.”