Pollinator Pathway Garden Puts Spotlight on Native Plants & Pollinators on Mare Island

By Nicole Newell, Sustainable Landscaping Program Manager

Painted lines and flags show the sections of the Pollinator Pathway garden that will focus on different types of pollinators once this lawn is converted into a native plant garden

Sometimes the vision to create something different takes a variety of partners to move toward reality. A vision of transforming Mare Island to support local pollinators is taking a step forward with the creation of Pollinator Pathway, a new educational demonstration garden that will highlight waterwise native plants that feed and nurture pollinators.

Vilma Aquino from Vallejo People’s Garden contacted us last year with the vision to replace the lawn at the Global Center for Success with a pollinator habitat to educate the community on the use of California native and pollinator plants in the landscape. She explained that monarch butterflies overwinter in the eucalyptus and redwood trees by St. Peter’s Chapel on Mare Island and that their numbers have been declining over the years. I wasn’t aware that monarch butterflies overwinter in Solano County! During the Thanksgiving 2022 Monarch count, approximately 300,000 monarch butterflies were counted at over 400 overwintering sites up and down the California coast. At St. Peter’s Chapel, the Monarch Milkweed Project counted approximately 500 monarch butterflies, but they didn’t overwinter. The Monarch Milkweed Project believes they moved on because there were not enough nectar plants on Mare Island for them and that St. Peter’s grove might need some changes to support a large population of butterflies.

I definitely have noticed the Mare Island streets lined with water-thirsty green lawns. It inspired me to dream and ask the question: What would it look like if everyone transitioned the water-loving lawn to drought-tolerant California native and pollinator plants that create habitat for pollinators including the monarch butterflies?

Toward that vision, SuSol is excited to partner with Vallejo People’s Garden to create a demonstration site that will show just how people could do that with their own landscape. On Feb. 11 and Feb. 18, we will be replacing the lawn at the Global Center for Success with a 3,000-square-foot California native and pollinator plant garden called Pollinator Pathway. The vision for this project is to be an educational site for people to learn about plants that provide habitat and food for our beloved pollinators and inspire others to replace their lawn with habitat.

What makes this project unique for Sustainable Solano:

• This is our first project in Vallejo focused primarily on native and pollinator plants.
• The plants will be hand-watered with the goal to stop watering once they are established (adding drip irrigation can be expensive, leave a carbon footprint and the expense and expertise needed can deter people from planting).
• There are no gutters on this historical building. Instead of the swales people are familiar with from our other garden installations, we will be digging water-catching basins around the plants.

In 2009, Vilma put her dream into action through starting the Vallejo People’s Garden. She is passionate about education and has plans to expand the Pollinator Pathway into a self-guided educational garden where people can come to learn about native and pollinator plants.

Through planning this project we connected with a number of local organizations that will be collaborating with us! You can learn more about each below. Sustainable Solano holds so much gratitude for all involved in making Vilma’s Pollinator Pathway vision a reality.