A pollinator garden is coming to Peoria Heights’ Poplar Lane Park, and you can help.
On Saturday, March 15, volunteers will gather at 9 a.m. at Poplar Lane Park – across Illinois Route 29 from Bielfeldt Park, on the Heights’ waterfront – to start pulling up sod and loosening dirt at what eventually will become a 700-square-foot pollinator garden and a source of pride for the Little Village That Could.
The garden is the brainchild of Ethan Lynn, PhD, an educator and consultant who works in promoting literacy. A native of Ohio who moved with his family to Peoria Heights sight unseen about three and a half years ago, in large part because housing prices were so affordable here, Lynn was surprised to discover how beautiful the local landscape was. He’d been educated in Utah and Arizona, had a job offer in Hawaii, and previously had thought of Illinois as just flat and full of corn
Lynn, 35, soon discovered that most of those farm fields had once been natural prairie, which had its own innate beauty and diversity. And he thought he could lend a hand – and a spade and a rake -- to help bring it back and, perhaps, even make it a little better.
He contacted Village government and soon got a conversation going with Trustee Brandon Wisenburg about his idea for a citizen-led initiative that, in its own small way, would make the Heights and surrounding region a better place.
In planting some 240 native wildflowers of about 30 species, specifically multiple varieties of milkweed, “we want this to turn into a monarch (butterfly) magnet,” as well as a haven for planet-saving bumblebees and beetles, said Lynn. “It will be vibrant” with splashes of pink, purple, white, yellow, blue, lavender, red and orange.
Meanwhile, the garden may produce other benefits, in part by adding to the Heights’ growing reputation as an ecotourism destination that also includes the bluff-side recreational path that is coming with the Illinois Route 29 reconstruction. In addition, there will be reduced maintenance costs for the Village as the pollinator project precludes the need to mow, said Wisenburg. Regarding concerns about flooding, that has been anticipated as well, as Lynn said a more elevated site has been chosen that doesn’t typically get that river overflow.
“I think Poplar Park is going to be better off for this,” said Wisenburg.
The project will proceed in four phases, between the sod removal and soil preparation on March 15, a May 24 planting and fencing day, June irrigation, and August-September weeding. Lynn anticipates needing 150 total volunteer hours.
“The more the merrier,” he said of the individual volunteers, who are welcome to just show up if they wish but can also give him a heads up by email, at drethanlynn@gmail.com. While some tools will be provided, volunteers are encouraged to bring their own shovels and trowels.
Lynn doesn’t consider himself a master gardener. He grew up near Cincinnati with a typical suburban yard and a dad who would mow. But on his runs through town, he began to notice and appreciate the potential of the Heights’ natural areas, “got the passion’ for what could be, consulted with some experts and decided to “take a shot in the dark” with an email to Village Hall and an idea “to do something small, practical and manageable,” at minimal cost. The Village is contributing $2,500 of financial and in-kind assistance to the project.
Ultimately, this central Illinois transplant is hoping to plant his way to putting this part of the Land of Lincoln on the map in a very natural way. Indeed, he hopes this is just “the tip of the iceberg,” and that this effort plants a seed in others to take this concept and run with it at multiple locations.
“This is our heritage and our identity,” said Lynn, who lives on East Terrace View Lane with his wife, Felicia, and four young children. He’s noticed that Illinoisans sometimes discount or dismiss what’s special about the place they call home, and he hopes to start changing some of those attitudes and create a sense of pride. “There’s a hidden beauty in Illinois and it’s right underneath our noses.”
“I absolutely love it here,” he said. “I never thought I’d have an experience like this in Illinois.”