Press Release from Madison the City:
America in Bloom awarded Keep Madison the City Beautiful with the Canadian National’s EcoConnexions From the Ground Up grant.
This grant is a community greening grant program of CN and America in Bloom which totals $14,500. It is a match for a total project cost of $29,000 which will be used to refurbish the city’s existing pollinator garden.
The existing garden was started in 2010 when the city of Madison partnered with the National Agricultural Wildlife Conservation Center (AWCC).
The garden would be a half-acre filled with pollinator-friendly plants, a water feature, paths for visitors and educational displays about pollinators and conservation. Since that time, the Center became inactive and the city has now assumed all maintenance responsibility.
The garden will now complement the existing city owned building, a National Historic Registry structure built in the 1870’s known locally as the “Strawberry House”. It will consist of over 1200 native shrubs, ground covers and/or flowers which will support the biodiversity needed for the insect kingdom to have food, shelter, areas to breed and also to eat.
Plans also include identifying the plants using site placards and QR codes linked to a national plant database. The garden is also being developed with the help from community volunteers and is scheduled to be completed by December 31, 2024.
It will serve to establish a stronger connection with nature in the community and possibly harbor more pollinator habitats in the future for the state of Mississippi.
