A Landscape Transformed: Mickleton Park’s Pollinator Garden Blooms With Life

Stockton University, Unified Science Center, Room 246

Lucy Hooper has long nourished her own yard’s pollinator garden, a place well-known to local butterflyers as a prime spot to see sleepy oranges and other South Jersey rarities.  In 2021 she decided to invest her expertise in an anonymous patch of grass at a local public park.  She and her husband Bruce won a couple of grants and, in four years and counting, they have transformed the landscape.  That patch of grass has become Mickleton Park’s Pollinator Garden, with blooms from April to October attracting butterflies, bees, and human visitors. 

Come hear her story – which 60+ native plants she selected and planted, which have prospered best, what she has learned (including during last year’s drought), and how she plans to expand her efforts.  Lucy has much to teach anyone interested in native plants and in helping our insect pollinators.