HUNTSVILLE — Blevins Gap Nature Preserve, one of the most visited preserves in North Alabama, now offers another reason to enjoy this popular gathering space.
Land Trust of North Alabama has opened Marie’s Garden, a native plant garden providing food and habitat for pollinators and an educational resource for the community.
“Blevins Gap is already a popular space for people to come and gather so we’ve added the pollinator garden as a way of introducing a broader part of the community to the whole idea of native plants and how to promote pollinators in your own yard,” says Marie Bostick, Land Trust of North Alabama Executive Director.
The garden, on the north end of the trailhead parking lot accessed from Cecil Ashburn Drive, offers unobstructed views of Huntsville looking west making it an ideal spot to watch a sunset. The area was significantly expanded in 2020 during the Cecil Ashburn Drive widening project.
Rather than utilizing the entire area as a gravel parking lot, the Land Trust converted more than an acre of the space into an environment that hosts critical pollinators, such as birds, butterflies, bees, and other insects that serve a crucial role in distributing pollen allowing plants to reproduce.
“This will be a phenomenal teaching tool for the Land Trust and if we can get everybody to start thinking about it they can start replicating this in their own home on a much smaller scale but it is just as impactful.” said volunteer Harvey Cotton.
According to the USDA, around three-fourths of the world’s flowering plants and more than a third of the world’s food crops depend on pollinators for reproduction. However, habitat for pollinators is disappearing as land is developed.
Volunteers led the design and preparation for a garden to highlight the native plants of the region. With a clear vision in place, an army of volunteers began the project in January 2023, planting 650 plants on the first work day. Over the past year, volunteers and Land Trust staff have slowly transformed a rocky field into a vibrant garden with over 89 different native species represented.
Due to the terrain, exposure to the elements, lack of an on-site water source, and the scale of the project, the effort required numerous hands and hours. This summer, all of that hard work was rewarded as leaves emerged, flowers bloomed, and wildlife appeared on this previously unoccupied piece of land.
The garden, made possible through financial support from the Bakken Family and additional support from Mike and Patty Lowe, features gravel pathways that wind through planted beds. Benches offer peaceful spots to rest and enjoy the scenery and two water collection tanks gather rainfall for garden maintenance.
Through interpretive signs and on-site educational programs, visitors are invited to learn about the importance of pollinators to our ecosystem and how individuals can foster these populations in our own outdoor spaces, enriching the ecosystem as a whole.
Blevins Gap Nature Preserve is open daily from dawn to dusk. The preserve is free to access but donations to support care for this property and others like it are accepted.
For information, visit landtrustnal.org/blevins-gap-
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