Pollinator Pathway Garden

The Pollinator Pathway Garden was planted in the spring of 2026. "Pollinator Pathway” is a nationwide organization of volunteers who plant gardens of native plants suitable for native pollinator species, such as bees and butterflies.  These gardens are essential for supporting local wildlife and maintaining the health of our ecosystems.

 Guided by natural landscape designers Josephene Gasperi and Justin Russinko of Perception Horticulture, half a dozen volunteers planted over 120 native plants in a 1500 square foot area South of the Merriebrook Lane parking lot.  

Our plantings include bayberry bushes, New England asters, panicled asters, blue wood asters, sensitive ferns, Solomon’s seal, blue cardinal flowers, mountain mint, and bloodroot.  Each plant is marked with a red flag so we can keep track of its growth and development.  By mid to late summer, we are hoping for a beautiful woodland glade of berry-laden shrubs, delicate blooms, frilly grasses, and lush ferns.

One of the unique aspects of our Pollinator Pathway garden is how we were able to control the Japanese knotweed that had previously dominated the site.  Japanese knotweed is an extremely invasive, bamboo-like plant that forms dense, nine-foot-tall monocultures.  These monocultures completely exclude all other plants through dense shade and herbicide excretions from their roots.  Eradication is an extremely expensive and time-consuming process requiring one or more of the following: excavation to a depth of 6 to 9 feet; multi-year tarp-smothering campaigns; and multi-year applications of intensive herbicides.  Even if all that works, constant monitoring is still required because knotweed will return sooner or later.  

We, on the other hand, didn’t have to do any of that.

What we did do was notice that about 2-3 years ago, something started eating the knotweed.  That something turned out to be our local white-tailed deer.  The deer come by in the middle of the night.  When the knotweed sends up new, protein-rich shoots in the spring, the deer come by almost every night to eat everything they can find.   When the knotweed sends up new shoots to replace the ones the deer ate, the deer come back and eat those too.  This process is repeated all summer.

After a few years, the deer reduced our knotweed stand to scattered short stalks with plenty of room to plant native plants in between. 

Deer browsing knotweed is a new phenomenon.  If you see any in your area, we would love to hear about it.  Perhaps the deer in your neighborhood can also help you transform a stand of invasive knotweed into a lush, biodiverse Pollinator Pathway garden.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to the Stamford Parks Community Partnership for their generous grant supporting our garden.

Deer captured browsing knotweed at night.