Hastings Park Garden

A Demonstration Native plant Garden at Hastings Park

In June 2023, volunteers with Lexington Living Landscapes installed a demonstration native plant pollinator garden at Hastings. Please stop by to see it! You’ll find it by the memorial stone at the junction of Massachusetts Avenue and Worthen Road near Lexington Center.

The purpose of the garden is three-fold: (i) to educate people about the importance of native plants to pollinators and other wildlife, (ii) to showcase native plants that people might want to add to their own gardens, and (iii) to create a visually pleasing display of plants that have a succession of bloom times and offer multi-season interest as well.

Establishing the garden in 2023

Like any perennial garden, the project is a work in progress. Perennials take a couple of years to become well established. There’s an old saying with perennials: The first year they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year they leap! In 2023, our plants established good roots. 

After a gentle spring cleanup in 2024, the plants are growing well!

During winter and spring, you may notice tall dry stems, which could be seen as untidy. Why weren’t the dead stems and brush cut back to the ground in an autumn clean up? This is intentional! The inside of pithy stems can shelter native pollinators that overwinter in pupal and egg life stages.

Some butterflies overwinter as pupae attached to dry stems and bushes. Native solitary female bees lay eggs in a compartmentalized nest in hollow plant stems; these grow to emerge in the spring and even into the summer. Even with a gentle cleanup in the very late spring, we will leave many of the dried stems upright and intact. Native species including bee balm, blazing star, and cone flowers have a stem structure which lends itself well for native cavity-nesting bees. Visit the Xerces Society Leave the Leaves page for photographs of these nesting sites. 

What do you observe in your garden?  What do you observe at the Hastings Park Pollinator Garden?

The plants were sourced from Bagley Pond Perennials in Warner, New Hampshire and Native Plant Trust in Framingham. If you would like to purchase any of these species for your own yard, see these and other sources listed on our Where to Buy Plants page.