City Hall Native Plant Pollinator Garden & Bee Hotel

In the spring of 2023, the city of Mountain Brook planted its first native plant pollinator garden.  It is located on the city hall grounds, along the Tibbett Street entrance.  The 400 square foot garden contains 90 plants consisting of 25 native plant species.  The garden replaced what had traditionally been planted with seasonal non-native ornamentals.   

The garden grew lush throughout the summer months, providing pollen, nectar, and lifecycle support for a variety of native bees, butterflies, moths, and other beneficial insects.  If you stopped by the garden in July you had the joy of seeing Monarch caterpillars munching on the swamp milkweed!  The native garden proved to be resilient, with limited need for manual weeding or watering! 

Located within the garden is a bee hotel, made in the shape of city hall!  The purpose of this bee hotel is to provide nesting cavities for native, solitary bees. 

As the garden settled into fall it transformed into a "messy" but important over-wintering habitat for beneficial insects who need the brown stalks and stems of summer's forbs in which to hibernate and complete their lifecycles heading into spring! 

Next to the garden is an oak tree (that supports 558 species of caterpillars!)... whose leaves have intentionally been left at its feet in order to provide critical overwintering habitats ("soft landings") for the 90% of those caterpillars who dropped to the ground beneath the oak to spend the winter in leaf litter. 

The city hall pollinator garden is the first of what we hope to be many pollinator habitat installations throughout the city.  We've got our eyes on traffic islands and public parks as future installation sites, so be on the lookout for more to follow!  If you've got an idea for another native plant garden site in the city, let us know at hazend@mtnbrook.org.  Thanks!