Caring for Our Smallest Residents: The Story of Hill City’s Pollinator Garden
In 2023, the HCNA had an opportunity to apply for a "Placemaking" grant from the Greater Chattanooga Area Realtors (GCAR). GCAR awards one grant per year (a total of $25,000) to applicants who demonstrate a plan to take an unused or neglected space within their communities and turn it into something beautiful or useful for residents. HCNA decided to focus on an underutilized triangular patch of land between N. Market Street, E. Peak Street, and Dallas Road. The triangle was home to a few crape myrtles, a big, beautiful oak tree, and the rest was grass, requiring regular mowing. In fact, it had always been grass, according to some of Hill City's long-time residents.
Above: Original plans and site for the pollinator garden.
HCNA developed a plan to convert the grassy space into a miniature park that would be a host for numerous native plants encouraging bees, butterflies, birds, and other creatures integral to our ecosystem to stop in for a visit. This project would also incorporate local businesses and talent all while keeping the money in our community. With the support of local residents and businesses, we submitted our application and after a few months, were pleased to learn that, even with a record number of applications, GCAR chose to support our project.
We immediately got to work securing the proper permits, working on the landscape design, selecting plants, designing the educational signs, building and painting the benches, and rallying the community to put it all together. When the initial landscaping was completed and the pathways were in place, residents came together, spades in hand, to put each and every new plant in the ground and water them. The project was finally finished at the end of summer 2024 with the installation of the educational signs—the last step in a very lengthy but rewarding process. Since its creation, we've been pleased to see baby bees, Gulf Fritillary caterpillars, and a host of other amazing creatures that call this space home. We hope you'll enjoy stopping in for a visit too!
Above: The completed pollinator garden, with educational signs, painted benches, and first blooms!
A huge thank you to Danielle Grimm for her tireless dedication—from envisioning and planning the pollinator garden to navigating logistics, coordinating installations, and personally nurturing every plant along the way. Her hard work and passion made this project a reality!
A very special thanks to all the other local businesses and volunteers that helped us create this educational garden:
Phillips|Creasey and their landscape designer Scott Broussard for helping us design this space and bring it to life
Scenic City Arborists for their tree care, expertise, and the water they provided on planting day
Printree for designing and printing the high-quality educational signs
Reflection Riding Arboretum's native plant nursery for providing their expertise and nearly all of the plants in the garden
lain Hoefle for building the benches, pouring the concrete pads, helping with sign installation, and providing a number of other support roles throughout this process
Jeremy Wilson for welding and helping install the sign frames
Real Roots Cafe, Fast Break Athletics, and Neuhoff Taylor Architects PC for their letters of support for our project
All of the neighbors who helped us plant, pull weeds, and continue to keep the garden looking beautiful. We couldn't do this without you!
Photo Credits: Danielle Grimm and Jeremy Wilson.