Planting Hope with Girl Scout Troop #25774
Hey, friends near Paulina Meat Market in Lakeview, Chicago! Have you noticed anything new? Something perhaps like a beautifully-colorful, pollinator garden blossoming? Hopefully you are ready for beautiful butterflies and cute fuzzy bumble bees because The Bug Girls from Rose Pest Solutions and Girl Scout Troop #25774 planted a pollinator garden in the neighborhood!
Planting Day
Planting day was our first experience and look at what community events look and feel like with COVID-19 precautions. Although it was a challenging day to be masked, this tough and determined bunch of butterfly advocates powered through our project without complaints! As difficult as it was to dig through rock hard dirt with a mask on in 95 degree weather, the fulfillment of being outside and planting hope felt extra necessary and rewarding. This day served as a reminder to us that we can do great things when we make space for everyone’s unique talents and learn to work together.
Bug Lovers Unite
In order to maintain social distancing and reap the benefits of muscle power the girls showed up in groups of two for 30 min digging and planting sessions. We were very impressed with the girls’ desire to participate. Our hearts were bursting from all the bug love! In addition to needing water breaks, we also took frequent breaks to talk bug-science as we relocated rollie-pollies, earthworms, and other soil-benefiting insects while digging.
Research, Help from Friends, and Zooms
Prior to planting day, Rose’s Bug Girls worked with the troop via Zoom to teach them all about pollinators. We talked about some of the native plants that we can put in our own urban backyards to help promote pollinator health. With the help from our partners at Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum and their Horticulturalist, Seth Harper, we learned all about perennial and annual pollinator plant species, as well as the names of some of the butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees we see in Chicago. Rose purchased plants that the troop picked out together from the Nature Museum’s Annual Pollinator Plant Sale.
Team Work Makes the Dream Work
Wondering how this partnership came to be? Longing to give back to the source that nurtured her love for nature, Rose’s original Bug Girl was ambitious to work with girl scout troops on some sort of pollinator-related project. In August 2019, while working the WGN Back To School Kid’s Fair with show-and-tell hissing cockroaches in tow, Girl Scout Troop #25774 came up to our Rose tent and introduced themselves. The girls challenged each other and showed off their bravery by petting the giant roaches. The girls LOVED the bugs! So, we shared an idea for planting a community garden that day with the Troop leader and kept in touch throughout the Winter and Spring. The Lakeview Chamber of Commerce helped with logistics and planning. It was perfect, despite everything happening around us. We made a difference together for our community!
If you’d like to learn about how you can work with the Bug Girls, send us a message!
