Today, our ASU research team worked with Mirabella residents to set up a pollinator garden at the community center.
Mirabella is a retirement center and community partnered with ASU on a variety of initiative. Over the past few months, we have been working with community members to plan out a pollinator garden, select native plants, and develop tools for collecting observations and other environmental data in the garden.
Through our collaboration, we identified a list of local, native pollinator plants that are of interest to the group, as well as feasible for a patio garden based on water/sun requirements, size, space, bloom cycles, and the types of pollinator species they attract.
We ended up selecting 6 native plants for the garden that together attract a variety of butterflies, moths, hummingbirds and bees. We set up the garden together with the residents using a combination of native and potting soil.
We also created a few infographics describing the plants and pollinators, as well as an observation intake sheet. We will be collecting observations and notes from the residents over the next few months to understand preliminary trends on plant growth and local pollinator species. We are also working on a few low-cost sensors to collect environmental data in the garden, including soil temperature and moisture as well as ambient air temperature, UV exposure, and air quality.
