Planting a native garden at Perkins Park in Green Bay, June 20, 2024. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — It was an invitation to dig in and join the “muddy hands club.”
Thousands of plants are in the ground at Perkins Park in Green Bay.
The new native garden is designed to attract many different insects.
“Our garden that we’re putting in is what we’re calling a sun garden. So, all of the plants getting put in, are more of the warm colors when they bloom. So the yellow, the reds, the white. To make it look and resemble the sun,” said Maria Otto, Green Bay Parks Department.
Maria Otto says 3,000 plants are ready for planting.
“We have pollinators, bees, butterflies, ants, wasps, everything. They come out and are active at different times of the year. So we need to have food sources, and pollen sources throughout the whole year,” she said.
Green Bay Botanical Garden Horticulture Director Mark Konlock coordinates the delivery.
“All these plants, we grew at Green Bay Botanical Garden. We started the seeds back in January, in the greenhouses that we work with at NWTC. Now, we stepped them up, through different sizes, throughout those different months. And now, we’re ready to put them in their final home here at Perkins Park,” said Mark Konlock, Green Bay Botanical Garden Horticulture Director.
Konlock says pollinators, like bees, and butterflies will gather at the native garden.
“We have some penstemon. That’s an early bloomer. Coreopsis. Then we go to, I think they’re called rattlesnake master, which is actually a good pollinator plant,” he said.
Maria Otto says the effort is part of a larger plan, to build native gardens around the city. Green Bay has about 70 parks.
“And try to connect a corridor, so we are able to have the pollinators cross through the city safely, and have habitats that they can go to and thrive,” said Otto.
More native gardens are expected to be planted. On July 11, the city plans to build one at Danz Park, which is on Green Bay’s east side.
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