Bee Friendly Projects

The Town of Carbondale Parks Department and Heritage Garden manager Sue Gray are partnering with Bee Friendly to create a native pollinator garden at the southwest corner of the park. The plants in this garden will attract a variety of wild insect species which will provide their pollination services to Hattie's Kitchen Garden at the Thompson House Museum and the nearby Carbondale Historic Food Forest.

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During the summer of 2025, we have packed this garden with more plant material in order to establish a native plant matrix. This method is derived from natural ecosystems where plants communities grow densely together which crowds out weeds and provides biodiverse habitat. This summer, we have added over 600 native plants! Some of our favorites are Artemisia frigida (Fringed Sage);  Oenothera macrocarpa (Missouri Evening Primrose); Penstemon strictus (Rocky Mountain Penstemon); and Hachita Blue Grama Grass. After the plants are fully established, the irrigation in that area will be reduced and with a little bit of maintenance, the garden will become a low-water, self-sustaining, treasure trove of food for our endangered pollinator species.

In the spring of 2023, the Bee Friendly committee applied for the Town of Carbondale's Adopt-A-Garden program and received the Sopris Park bridge gardens as our project.

The intention of the public garden improvements was to have a more intentional appearance to the prominently placed gardens in an extensively used town park, and to showcase waterwise native and adaptive plants for this semi-shade garden.

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Committee members and volunteers initially prepped the five garden beds around the bridge by pulling weeds and trimming the shrubs. The Town of Carbondale purchased the recommended plants which were planted by the Bee Friendly committee members.

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In the spring and summer of 2025, Bee Friendly volunteers will perform garden maintenance and assess the health and progress of the plants in their care.​

Applications are open for the Town of Carbondale Residential Turf Replacement Program.

Photo: Sod cutting is one option to remove turf. This has worked well for local homes to quickly prepare a garden for new native planting.

In partnership with Town of Carbondale, Bee Friendly is working to re-imagine this public garden with low-water native pollinators.

Native pollinator plants support specialized local native pollinators! Each and every pollinator garden is an opportunity to support biodiversity, water conservation, and community beauty.

Have an idea for a project, we'd love to collaborate with you!