More than 280 native plants and over 22 species were planted in the Prairie on the Patio Garden at the Bloomington Public Library that hosted a grand opening for the garden Thursday.
The project was funded with a $3,000 environment and nature grant from the Illinois Prairie Community Foundation.
Library renovations
The library’s green committee chair, Dennis Gotkowski, said the native plant garden has been a dream of the committee’s for several years.
“We hope their natural beauty will attract readers as well as pollinators, and that this will become a nicer place for people to read and learn,” Gotkowski said.
The garden came about a year after renovations were completed at the library.
Janet Rasmussen, board member of Wild Ones Illinois Prairie chapter, and a former BPL staff member, said the idea of a native plant garden on library grounds has been around for years, but they wanted to wait until after renovations were completed.
Native plants
The garden was created in partnership with the Wild Ones Illinois Prairie chapter, an organization that teaches about native plants.
“Native plants do help support our native wildlife a lot better,” Rasmussen said. “They provide better resources, they're more drought-tolerant, more adapted to the local conditions.”
Prairie on the Patio Garden is what Rasmussen called “ecological gardening,” or gardening not just for looks, but also for the local wildlife and pollinators.
“We're having diminishing insect populations, so the more we can plant for our insects, that helps the environment because then those insects also provide food up the food chain for birds and things like that,” she said.
