Project Description
Osgood Elementary School
Pollinator Garden
The Pollinator Garden at Cohasset’s Osgood Elementary School was designed and laid out just behind the school in 2012 by the Club’s Conservation Committee as a teaching garden for Osgood’s 2nd grade students. A local landscaper volunteered his services for the initial digging and soil amending that was appropriate for this half-circle organic garden. The garden’s design was developed by one of the club’s members who created a garden plan and a plant list, which are still used as a teaching tool for the students when they participate in the garden lesson. The garden was initially planted by the 2nd grade students under the instruction of members of the club’s Conservation Committee. This initial planting served as a plant biology learning tool.
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The pollinator garden contains a wide variety of pollinator friendly perennial plants that bloom throughout the growing season. The flowers offer the full range of colors that insects and hummingbirds consider attractive sources for pollen. Each year during “Bee a Pollinator Pal” week there is an outdoor “class” held around the pollinator garden that covers all aspects of its plants, soil and its visiting pollinators.
In addition, students learn about the importance of organic gardening and its “living” soil, and have a chance to “plant” earthworms in the garden bed each year—their most exciting activity—at the end of the garden class. The week ends with a butterfly release in the garden and seed packets donated by Holly Hill Farm are given to the students to take home so they can grow their own pollinator friendly flowering plants.
The garden is maintained during the summer vacation by volunteer parents. In the spring before “Bee a Pollinator Pal” week, club members weed, mulch, transplant plants that have “traveled” in the garden over the past summer, and amend the soil with organic compost. It is maintained the rest of the summer by a Civic Projects maintenance team.
