Pollinator Garden Tour 2022
Saturday, June 18, 9 to Noon
Pollinators are needed for almost everything, from the food you eat, medicines, your home or even the clothes you wear. And some pollinators, like the Monarch Butterfly, have declined in population–Monarch populations are down over 90% since 1997! So the City of Arvada’s Majestic View Nature Center is looking to find pollinator gardens, and gaps, to support struggling pollinator populations. Knowing where pollinator gardens are, and where they aren’t, can help the City focus pollinator conservation efforts effectively for future planning.
Pollinator gardens are rich in native and regionally appropriate flowering plants, which are great for Colorado pollinators. Birds, bats, beetles and other insects, like the Monarch Butterfly, use pollinator gardens to rest during migrations, eat and refuel, and even lay eggs or rear their young. As the Nature Center celebrates its 20th anniversary, we want to celebrate the gardens across the City that have supported the pollinators that visit the Nature Center each year. As many gardeners who have cultivated their passion for pollinators are eager to see more gardens support pollinators, and to share the beauty of Colorado’s many native plants, this self-guided tour will let gardeners see established pollinator gardens as well as gain insights for tips and tricks.
Pollinator Garden Tour maps and interactive activities and crafts for the whole family will be available at the Majestic View Nature Center from 9 a.m. to noon. Start at the Nature Center before you go out to explore selected pollinator gardens and if you get your map stamped at every tour stop, you can come back to the Nature Center before noon to enter to win a $50 garden gift basket to dig into your own pollinator garden.
Have A Pollinator Garden?
If you have an established pollinator garden and are passionate about sharing your garden story, you can apply to be a pollinator garden host and listed on our pollinator tour map. Applications open May 10 and close June 10, hosts will be selected and notified by June 11. All Pollinator garden hosts will be required to completed a volunteer background check and short garden tour orientation to get host kits and important information about the pollinator garden tour. All hosts will receive a 2022 Pollinator Host marker for their garden.
Know where there's a pollinator garden in Arvada?
Using feedback provided by the public in 2021, the Majestic View Nature Center and the Parks Department have begun to cultivate additional monarch and pollinator garden patches in pollinator food gaps along Arvada’s open spaces.
Now, we’d like to see how our pollinator corridors have grown in 2022, add significant changes from 2021, update our data (for example, has a pollinator garden changed in size?), and help increase interest in pollinator gardens across Arvada. Do you have a garden that attracts lots of pollinators? Or do you know of a garden or open space that has native and regionally appropriate plants? We want you to share more of your garden stories, pin a garden on the map, and read more about the City’s 2021 efforts for pollinators as part of the Mayors Monarch Pledge. Even if you participated in our past Speak Up project, we encourage you to add any new data or update significant changes to pins you’ve added in the past. You don’t have to own or manage the garden, pin any space that supports our pollinators and is publicly visible.
