Shovels and watering cans in hand, thirty volunteers dug into the dirt along the west side of the Psychology Building leading up to Giltner Hall on Saturday. These volunteers are working on a pollinator garden which is set to add native plants to the area as a part of the semiannual Spartan Day of Service workshops. 

The workshops have aided MSU in converting a total of six acres of turf grass into pollinator-friendly areas since 2001.

The types of plants selected for the garden from Bendy Stem Farm in Dimondale, Michigan, include purple prairie clover, butterfly weed, gray goldenrod and knotting onion flowers. 

The flowering species provide an oasis for Michigan pollinators in the middle of the nutrient deficient desert that turf grass lawns are capable of creating.

“When you put in native plants, you attract the native insects, which then attracts the native birds, because then the birds will have insects to feed on, whereas we've got a plethora of warbler species that migrate through the state in the spring and in the fall,” said Carolyn Miller, MSU’s arboretum and invasive species coordinator and key contributor for planning the gardening workday. 

Volunteers also planted a type of native grass called prairie dropseed, which has a deeper root system than typical turf grass.

The prairie dropseed’s deeper roots are able to create pathways for rainwater to flow through the soil and restore local groundwater supply, as opposed to it flowing on top of the soil or rushing away during heavier rainfall.

“So during heavy rain events, that's a good thing, because then we don't overwhelm the sewer system,” Miller said. 

The Pollinators United Sustainability Hub partnered with Spartan Day of Service to expand the number of pollinator gardens around MSU’s campus. 

PUSH President Lola Marina, an environmental science and sustainability studies junior, expressed her excitement for the community of like-minded individuals this planting experience can bring.