Pollinator Garden at Griffiths 1 Solar Farm

It was an absolute pleasure working with Audubon Rockies to design pollinator habitat strips to encircle Griffiths 1 solar farm in Johnstown, Colorado.

The habitat garden location along the perimeter of the East, West, and South side meant it would be long and linear. It would also be installed by volunteers. How will we streamline and organize volunteer planting efforts while also inspiring them to plant for pollinators in their own backyards? Answering this question became the driving force behind the final concept.

Under the assumption that we wanted a low water and low maintenance planting design, a preliminary plant list was developed and the thought of breaking up the long linear garden into 5’ x 10’ plots arose. The idea being that one volunteer could be in charge of a plot or two, be given a card with the design and begin planting. To make ordering plants easier and in order to streamline volunteer organization, 5 different plot designs were developed, each of which seamlessly flow into the next design. The repeating pattern of the 5 plot designs were based on the seasons: spring, spring-summer, summer, and fall. This made it a simple and effective way to install this garden with volunteers.

Chickadee Pine Designs in collaboration with Audubon Rockies, designed, and helped coordinate volunteers to install it. Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado stepped in to help with volunteer sign-up, tool logistics, and day of sign ins, and Jared with Ethically Rooted, who would be taking on the role of maintaining the garden helped a ton with install as well. The weather was crazy and had already been postponed due to torrential rains and immovable mud but volunteers are awesome and we did it! We also partnered with High Plains Environmental and Harlequin Garneds who grew the native plants. Check out this link to learn more: https://rockies.audubon.org/habitat-hero/griffiths-solar-one

Image credit: Audubon Rockies