The new 3.5 acre Pollinator and Bird Garden at The Arboretum at Penn State synthesizes research through the creation of beautiful and ecologically rich habitats for pollinators and birds. The innovative design was developed in collaboration with Phyto Studio, Lake Flato Architects, the Center for Pollinator Research, faculty and staff of the Arboretum, and members of the Avian Education Advisory Committee.

Pollinator declines and the insect apocalypse continue to fill our newsfeeds, yet a lack of inertia or clear direction remains in the face of ecological crisis.

The new Pollinator and Bird Garden directly responds to this crisis by crafting moments in the landscape to enhance ecological function, support and demonstrate research, and invite engagement and an ethic of care.

The design process began with a simple question: what criteria distinguish a pollinator and bird garden? The project team outlined three interrelated goals: to create intentional habitat for pollinators and birds, provide places to conduct research, and educate and inspire visitors to rebuild habitat at both individual and collective scales.

The 3.5-acre site selected for the new garden was previously a gently sloping monoculture pasture without much habitat value. To support year-round food and habitat abundance in the new garden, the design team realized the need to diversify the site’s conditions. By sculpting and re-grading the entire site with a series of berms, the garden now emulates the ridges and valleys of the surrounding Pennsylvania context on a smaller scale. Conditional variability creates a beautiful layering of distinctive moments: open meadows, gradual east-facing slopes, steep west-facing inclines, forested ridges, and swales to collect or slow water for moist conditions.

The series of micro-conditions also choreograph visitor experience through a progression of habitat rooms. Transitional spaces between two conditions are often the most diverse and active — between prospect and refuge: a shady woodland condition and an open meadow for example. The design team focused on amplifying these moments of transition as a sort of heightened environmental awareness.

The first moment of transition occurs upon entering the garden from an adjacent mowed lawn and esplanade. Visitors enter the garden facing a tilted meadow disc; an intensely planted and atmospheric living sculpture that lifts pollinators to eye level. The sequence intentionally presents a very rich habitat against the depleted habitat of the lawn. It’s also a space to understand habitat beyond flowering and food. The stratigraphic levels expose what happens underground where many pollinators live and nest.

The design team extended this intimacy throughout the garden, creating experiences to build progression and bridge scales — at times reversing the narrative of pollinators inhabiting the world of people, to people immersed in the world of pollinators. The Beehive structure, both a landmark and intimate space, invites visitors into the bees’ community. An emotional level of connection is breached, according to the designer: “You want to know what’s happening, and then you ask questions: why is that happening? What are they doing? Why now? If natural elements can spark curiosity, connections are formed, relationships built. And when we form a relationship, we are more likely to foster and care for it.”

Now entering its third season, the garden provides a wide array of unique habitat enhancements, including solitary bee nesting structures, bird feeders, bird nest boxes, wetland areas, and standing dead trees, or “snags,” to attract predatory birds such as raptors and owls. A beehive structure creates a protective pod with the garden; a shading device hosting and inviting people to discover a functioning bee hive within. The garden showcases more than 340 hardy plant taxa, of which at least 266, or 78%, are native species or selections thereof. Plant selections were targeted toward species that would provide maximum life-cycle support for native insects – particularly pollinators – and the region’s resident and migratory birds.