The Pierce Butler Route Bee Line offers an alternative model for roadway maintenance
7/27/2023
The Bee Line got its start a year ago in 2022 with a generous grant from the Lawns to Legumes program of the Minnesota Board of Soil and Water Resources. It builds on work by Frogtown Green dating back to 2016, as well as plantings by the Hamline-Midway Coalition made starting in 2018.
Our Goals
Our intention is to create a series of linear, pollinator-friendly gardens stretching along Pierce Butler Route from Dale Street to Snelling Avenue, near the West Minnehaha Recreation Center. We hope the Bee Line offers an alternative model for roadway maintenance. Our goals are multiple:
Increase pollinator-friendly habitat
Beautify a semi-industrial, neglected thoroughfare
Build community
Volunteers Make It Happen
Frogtown Green manages weekly volunteer work sessions on Thursday mornings from 9 to 11, starting in May and running through October. Master Gardener volunteers and other community volunteers come together to transplant, water, weed, or harvest seeds from the gardens, depending on the stage of the growing season. During winter, they clean, sort, and package the seeds that were collected so we can start them in early spring, bringing the garden cycle all the way around.
Volunteers on the Bee Line have planted 12,000 square-feet of pollinator-friendly gardens and plan to plant many more! There are more than 90 different kinds of native flowers, forbs, shrubs and trees on display in the garden. A list is viewable on the Monarch City website.
We have really benefited from Master Gardener volunteer involvement this year. We have some very dedicated volunteers, but it is wonderful to enlist someone new each week!
Learn and Grow
In addition to being spectacularly beautiful, the gardens serve as a venue to learn about pollinators. Every year the Frogtown Green team sponsors activities ranging from bee identification workshops led by U of MN Extension bee researcher Elaine Evans, to self-guided tours as part of Frogtown Green’s annual Climate Carnival, to nature walks with kids from the adjacent recreation center.
These activities are open to anyone interested in learning more or being inspired.
Patricia O and Chris S
Ramsey County Master Gardener volunteers
with Stephanie H
Promote ways to help native bees and other pollinators thrive in home and community spaces through more intentional landscape practices.