If we receive approval of our grant on Feb. 1, this year’s project will look at plants growing in our yards that provide food and shelter to pollinators such as bees and butterflies. Using grant funding (TBD), we will explore how our neighborhood can establish and/or expand healthy habitats for pollinators—whether by eliminating toxins or by choosing plants that attract and nourish them.

UPDATE: We received the approval in spring 2022 and will begin the project in mid to late fall 2022 (visit https://cherryhillna.org/2022-grant-bring-back-the-bs/ for current grant activities and information).

Below is our submission:

Bring Back the B’s (Bees and Butterflies) – 2022 Cherryhill Grant Idea
Our proposed project is an offshoot of the Everyday Sustainability program from earlier this year (Cherryhill’s 2020 grant on an extended timeline due to the pandemic). As part of the grant team’s research into sustainable gardening methods, several residents attended a June 17th webinar from the Xerces Society on the human dimensions of pollinator conservation. It challenged attendees to consider whether or not the plants growing in our gardens provide food and/or shelter to pollinators such as bees and butterflies. Obtaining a grant from the City of Sunnyvale will allow Cherryhill residents to explore how our neighborhood can establish or expand healthy habitats for pollinators – whether by eliminating toxins or by choosing plants that attract and nourish butterflies and bees.

We plan to create 4 pollinator demonstration gardens throughout the neighborhood; soliciting interested residents to host a front yard 4 ft hexagon-shaped garden filled with native plants to provide food and potential shelter for solitary bee species and (hopefully) Monarch butterflies. Two gardens will focus on food and shelter sources for native varieties of solitary bees. Solitary bees do not live in colonies, they look for hollowed out areas to lay their eggs. Although solitary bees do not produce honey, they are exceptional pollinators and are less susceptible to diseases like colony collapse disorder. The other two demonstration gardens will focus on food and shelter sources for Monarch butterflies, which travel between California and Mexico every year. According to Gardners.com, spring is the beginning of the monarch’s breeding season, and milkweed is crucial to survival of the species. Many flowers, —especially native plants, —are terrific sources of nectar for monarch butterflies, but milkweed leaves are the only food monarch caterpillars eat. Monarchs butterflies lay their eggs on milkweed plants so the tiny caterpillars will have access to food the moment they hatch.

We plan to register all 4 garden areas with the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge website (millionpollinatorgardens.org) and provide attractive signage and helpful website links for more information. Even though the million garden milestone was achieved in 2018, the site still accepts garden entries to continue building the nationwide map. At present, we can only find 3 registered gardens in Sunnyvale so going from 3 to 7 would be significant. Additionally, we believe this effort will increase communication between neighbors, improve the physical condition of the neighborhood and enhance neighborhood pride and identity.

Our neighborhood group will provide the physical labor to install the hexagon-shaped gardens. We plan to solicit seed and plant donations from within the neighborhood where possible (we have already secured a small supply of milkweed seeds, for example). We plan to ask a local garden materials company to donate soil for the hexagon planters and will plant the gardens in small teams (to increase cooperation across the community). To maintain a cohesive presence for the grant, we want to use the same hexagonal planter and easily identifiable signage in all areas.

Proposed timeline:

1. Solicit neighbors to host a hexagon garden in their front yards. (October 2022)
2. Build hexagon garden boxes, start seeds or seedlings indoors. (October-November 2022)
3. Install signage for garden areas. (November 2022)
4. Schedule volunteers for building/planting day(s). (November 2022)
5. Invite Cherryhill neighbors for a guided walking tour of the bee/butterfly pollinator gardens. (April 2023)