September 2022:  Inspired by Doug Tallamy's books we knew we had to attempt to help the pollinators.  We thought maybe we could take a small portion of a long neglected area of our town (we call it "the Third Street Trail") and turn it into a garden to help pollinate plants.  Instead of letting the land continue as a sort of neglected former municipal land dump, we thought, "This is the perfect spot to build a Pollinator Garden!!".  On the surface of the land, it was covered in invasive species, and underneath we learned there was a hodge-poge of "who knows what" deposited by either the boro, or the previous land owner Lovett's Nursery. 

October 2022:  We requested help from Jason Goldman, landscape designer at the Huber Woods Environmental center.  He offered to evaluate the area and provide guidance on how to remove invasive plants.  He recommended smothering the existing invasives with biodegradable cardboard as an alternative to plastic tarping.  We loved this idea because it’s not only environmentally responsible (no herbicides), it also provides an opportunity to recycle cardboard.  Such a win-win! 

November 2022:  On 11-14-22 the FH Boro Council approved a project to dump leaves in the area.  These were collected from the residents of FH.  In late November, the DPW gave us over 60 yards of leaves.  We covered the cardboard with leaves to further smother the invasives plants.  In time, as these leaves decomposed adding valuable nurtients to the soil.  (Wait...don't we pay money to deliver those leaves to a farm in Colts Neck so a farmer can use the nutrients in the leaves to help fertilize his field?   Yes, but that's a story for another website).

December 2022:  In December the DPW provided even more leaves to help us cover the site.  From Doug Tallamy we are learning the importance of the phrase "leave the leaves" as leaves, especially the ones from oak trees, help to enrich the soil, support overwintering insects, help keep the the moisture in the soil, and save the town some money by repurposing our leaves instead of carting them out of town for disposal.

May 2023:  The Fair Haven Green Team is awarded a $2,000 grant from Sustainable Jersey!!  Money is earmarked for native plants and an educational sign to help residents understand the importance of supporting pollinators.  Scroll below for definitions of pollinator, pollinator garden, and pollinator pathway.

April 2024:   Using the funds from Sustainable Jersey grant, a variety of native plants are purchased.  

May 2024:   The educational sign arrives, requiring the installation of a sturdy post.  Generously, the DPW installs the post to support our sign.  Thank you Fair Haven DPW!

May 19, 2024:   Ribbon Cutting!!!

Pollinator, Pollinator Garden, and Pollinator Pathway defined:

A pollinator moves pollen from the male part of a flower to the female part of a flower.  This helps to bring about fertilization.  Insects are the major pollinators of most plants, and insect pollinators include all families of bees and most families of aculeate wasps; ants; many families of flies; many lepidopterans (both butterflies and moths); and many families of beetles.

More than 80 percent of the world's flowering plants need a pollinator to reproduce; and we need pollinators too, since most of our food comes from flowering plants. One out of every three bites of our food, including fruits, vegetables, chocolate, coffee, nuts, and spices, is created with the help of pollinators.

Recent studies have found insect populations to be declining globally at rapid and alarming rates, likely impacting the many vital ecological services they provide. Pollinator decline, in particular, is a massive concern because of its impacts on food production, human health, and ecosystem functioning, including the capacity of plants to provide essential services such as carbon sequestration. 

A pollinator garden is just that, a garden filled with plants where the pollinators (bees, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, birds, etc.) move from plant to plant spreading pollen and helping with plant reproduction.  Our landscape has been chopped up, or fragmented, through urban- and suburban-ization. The problem is, we can no longer support sustainable populations of wildlife in our isolated parks and preserves alone, as Dr. Doug Tallamy, University of Delaware entomologist, argues so eloquently in his book Bringing Nature Home.  

Luckily, there is a solution. If we begin to manage our own yards organically and with native plantings, we can use them to connect parks and preserves, creating crucial corridors for wildlife. That is the idea behind the Pollinator Pathway. 

The pollinator pathway is a chain of "pesticide-free" public and private corridor of native plants that provide nutrition and habitat for pollinator insects and birds.  This chain is a series of areas (meadows, gardens, green spaces, curb strips, even flower boxes) which allow bees, butterflies, and other pollinators to move from place to place as they pollinate.  We wanted to do our little part to contribute to the pollinator pathway with a garden of native pollinators.  The first of these Pollinator Pathway projects began in 2017 in Wilton, CT. Since then, Pathways have been established in over 300 towns in 11 states, and the list keeps growing. 

We're hoping the pollinator garden along the Third Street Trail will grow to be an important link along the pollinator pathway.  Additionally, we want to educate our residents by installing signage (and building this website) to help educate and inspire them to plant in our garden, or plant their own garden and join the pollinator pathway!