Quad Meadow Seeding!

On Thursday, May 30th, students, staff, and faculty came together to seed a wildflower meadow on the slope in front of Bray Hall, adjacent to the Quad.

Our most ambitious Bee Campus planting yet, this meadow will be front and center on our campus, and will serve to demonstrate the beauty, utility, and feasibility of small meadow installations in urban and suburban spaces. There are over 50 northeast native species included in the seed mix (from Ernst Conservation Seed), plus a few locally collected species as well. It will offer a diversity of flowers and caterpillar host plants, and a bloom turnover to provide resources for pollinators from spring through fall.

By nature these meadows are dynamic, especially in their first few years. Students returning in the fall will see our companion crop, oatgrass, which shelters and shades the small wildflower seedlings in their first year. The next year, there will be a profusion of short-lived biennials or perennials like black-eyed susans. It is only in the third year and afterwards that we will truly start to see most of the long-lived perennials mature and bloom, and settle into the plant community best suited to the site.

We thank ESF President Joanie Mahoney for her support of this initiative, and of Bee Campus USA. This meadow will provide countless teaching and research opportunities for students, and greatly increase the biodiversity of our campus, both plants and insects alike.

If you want to learn more about how we establish meadows, and how you could do one yourself in your own yard, check out ESF's Lawn to Meadows Program!

Posted on Ιούνιος 02, 2024 0308 ΠΜ by mollymjacobson