The Details

We have developed a pollinator-friendly plant list and simple garden designs for use in this project, and we provide homeowners with plants and materials and install the gardens with the help of our volunteers. After several follow-up visits, the gardens are maintained by the homeowner.
The gardens take about two years to fully develop.

I live on the Pollinator Pathway, can I sign up? Yes, of course! Anyone who owns a home between 12th and 29th on Columbia can sign up. Be in touch, and we’ll tell you more details.

I don’t live on the Pollinator Pathway, but can I sign up? The project is limited to Columbia Street, but you can easily help pollinators by planting native plants- planting even a few makes a difference. Take a look at our Northwest-based plant list for inspiration, or use one of our free garden templates to start your own garden. Or, if you would like to help with this project, we welcome you to sign up as a garden volunteer.

What is the plan for long term care? Planting strips already have a unique land agreement between the City and the homeowner; the land is owned by the City, but homeowners care for the land. The Pollinator Pathway simply rests on that agreement between homeowner and the City.

However, long term care of this project is important to us, so we are working to find an existing gardening group that can ‘adopt’ the gardens long-term.

What type of plants do you use for this project? Because native plants have stronger relationships with native pollinators, the project aims to achieve 90% in native plants.

Who started this project? The Pollinator Pathway was started by artist, systems thinker and ecological designer Sarah Bergmann.

Can I start a Pollinator Pathway too? At this time, no. The Pollinator Pathway is an art and science project with a specific set of guidelines and principles. We are working on creating guidelines to make it possible to license the concept to others in the world. Please contact us if you are interested.