For years the town of Crothersville has used the Countryside Park on the town’s west side to play softball and little league baseball. In the last few years the community has added hiking trails, a high school cross country course, a play area and a giant swing in a big old oak tree.
Thanks to a $5,000 grant to the town from the Community Foundation of Jackson County, trails will be marked and a 500 sq foot pollinator garden to attract bees, birds and butterflies has been constructed.
Liz Brownlee, executive director of the Oak Heritage Conservancy, headed up the project which included classes on the importance of pollinators with the Crothersville Jr.-Sr. High School Science Clubs.
Middle School club members Brayden Crater, Dirk Crater and Blake Robinson joined forces to design the perennial garden which includes a walking path so park visitors can get an up close look at the Indiana native plants and the pollinators it will attract.
“Only perennial plants that ware native to Indiana were used in the project,” said Brownlee. “American Columbine, milk weed, Downy Sunflower, Big Blue Stem (a prairie grass) yellow and purple coneflower (Echinacea) will provide blooms from May through October.”
Twelve science club members and 20 adult and youth volunteers planted about 200 native plants and 75 annuals in about two hours on Thursday afternoon.
To view the pollinator garden take Main Street west to County Road 1000 E, turn north and turn into the northernmost park entrance to park. The pollinator garden is near the tree line for the wooded hiking trails.
