Covington seeks volunteers to revitalize, maintain pollinator gardens

A group of about two dozen volunteers gathered in Covington’s Randolph Park on Saturday for the nationwide Great American Cleanup Day.

More than 300,000 people nationwide participate in the annual effort to clean their communities of debris and remove trash, according to Keep America Beautiful, the national nonprofit behind the event.

The Center for Great Neighborhoods partners with the city of Covington’s Solid Waste & Recycling and Urban Forestry divisions to organize the local version of the cleanup. It’s part of a year-round effort known as Keep Covington Beautiful.

This year, the organizers decided to take advantage of the cleanup day to launch a special city beautification project — recruiting volunteers to help restore and maintain the series of pollinator gardens in parks across the city. They chose Randolph Park to host an event designed to raise awareness and bring out volunteers to help revitalize the park’s neglected pollinator garden.

Sheila Fields, manager of the city’s Public Works, Solid Waste and Recycling Division addressed the volunteers to outline the plan for the day. On the table before her was a sign up sheet and a bucket full of trowels, as well as a box of donuts to fuel the efforts. Volunteers split into groups. Some grabbed the trowels for weeding, and others took nearby shovels to begin planting.

Before they began, Fields gave a brief history of the garden. In 2017, Covington’s mayor at the time, Joseph Meyer, signed a proclamation to participate in a national “Mayor’s Monarch Pledge.” Cities across the US agreed to restore habitats, educate the public and provide way stations for monarch butterflies. Through that effort, the city planted pollinator gardens in eight parks, including Randolph.

The volunteers

Randolph Park sits on the edge of the Eastside Plus Neighborhood, and several community members came out to help. Scott Banford lives nearby and has been active in the community. The pollinator garden project fits into the neighborhood’s strategic plan, especially to provide youth with more fun and educational opportunities. It also helps build neighborhood unity and community as people come together to work on the project, he said.

Other volunteers came from across the city. Bill Theony is a member of the Northern Kentucky chapter of the Sierra Club and was among the original people who started Goebel’s pollinator garden. He also happens to have an entomology background and shares that knowledge with fellow garden volunteers.

Joe Albers lives in the city and brought along his partner Stephanie Herrow, who lives in Cincinnati. They often do volunteer work together and enjoy giving back, Herrow said.

“I’ve always loved gardening,” said Albers. “My mom, when she came to the country, she was a huge gardener, and that’s all she did. She spent eight hours a day just gardening her yard, so it runs in the family. It’s just good to get out and try to beautify things and be a part of something. You drive by every day, and can say, ‘hey, I did that. I was a part of that.’”

Eight-year-old Kya Clifton was focused on weeding. It was her first time, she said. She and her mother, Tisha Payne, came from Elsmere to help. Payne said their family is from Covington, and many still live in the city. She said she welcomed an opportunity to give back to the community.

Starting over

With no maintenance plan in place, the Randolph Park pollinator garden became overrun with weeds, and many of the plants died. In fact, it was hard to tell the garden was even there, except for a sign explaining the importance of the monarch habitat.

“Some of the plants didn’t make it for whatever reason. They didn’t get enough water, or they were stepped on. It was unfortunate, and now the garden just doesn’t have that same beauty that it did once upon a time,” said Fields.

“This is where we want to start. We want to do a replanting at Randolph, because there was a lot of time and energy that went into the first planting, the establishment of that garden,” she added.

With the notable exception of the pollinator garden in Goebel Park, which is thriving thanks to a dedicated group of neighborhood gardeners, the other pollinator gardens have suffered a similar fate to Randolph.

Volunteers are vital

Change is in the air, however. Field said a group of new park and rec managers have been coming together to learn about and discuss the importance of pollinator gardens. They’ve launched a citywide effort with neighborhood groups to take action to restore the gardens and to find the volunteers necessary to keep the gardens going.  

Melissa Lucas is an active volunteer group member who takes care of the pollinator garden at Goebel Park. A solid core of gardeners dedicate time each month to help maintain the garden. It is the success story organizers are hoping to replicate across the city.

“It’s one thing to establish a garden. It’s another thing to keep it going,” said Luscas. “A lot of people are willing to rush in and work on a one-time project and establish something, but, unfortunately, without follow-up, maintenance, and care, a lot of those projects fail, maybe not in one season, but they’ll dwindle away.”

“So that’s part of the next thing we’re trying to do is to organize community-based support for maintenance and care of these parks. We’ve managed to do that successfully at Goebel, and that is a model that we have in mind to try to use at some of the other garden sites as they get reinvigorated.”

You don’t have to be an experienced gardener to help. Everyone is welcome, Fields said. Yet, those who do know their way around can help guide volunteers who are not experienced. To that end, she added, the parks and rec staff plan to host educational talks and exhibits in the different parks to educate volunteers and the public.

Benefits of pollinator gardens

Pollinators, especially bees, have been all over the news lately. Bee populations are dwindling. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, more than half of North America’s 4,000 native bee species are in decline due to a combination of factors. Loss of habitat, parasites, disease, pesticide use and climate change all contribute.

Bees and other pollinators are an essential part of our food chain, and the decline has raised concerns across the country and around the world. According to The Bee Conservancy, bees pollinate one in three bites of food we eat and 80% of the world’s flowering plants. A loss of pollinators can impact food security globally.

“We’re talking about bees quite a bit, because bees are even better pollinators than butterflies. Butterflies don’t pollinate that much. Moths do pollination too, and then you’ve probably seen beetles and some hummingbirds, but bees are the big pollinators in our part of the country,” Lucas said.

Beyond the important role of providing a habitat for pollinators, the gardens provide an opportunity for community members to enjoy some respite and visual beauty in their neighborhood park, said Fields.

Lucas said she’s enjoyed the beauty of the Goebel pollinator garden throughout the spring, summer and into the fall.

“It can be spectacular,” she said. “You can’t appreciate it in just one season. Every month, it’s different things blooming. It’s just getting going here in April. As each season unfolds, just another beautiful picture emerges.”

Covington has eight pollinator gardens, all of which need volunteer help. They include Goebel Park, Randolph Park, Peaselburg Little People’s Park, Barb Cook Park, Austinburg Park, Devou Park, Highland, Benton and Hands Pike Park.

Watch for educational events about pollinators and pollinator gardens planned for 1 to 2 p.m. on June 24, 26 and July 1 in Randolph Park, said Fields. Details will follow.

For more information or to volunteer, contact Haley Snook, Parks and Rec administrator, at haley.snook@covingtonky.gov.