‘Pollinator Palooza’ helps Philly-area homeowners turn their lawn into native habitat

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When Pat Case and his wife bought a rowhome in Philadelphia’s Mt. Airy neighborhood three years ago, they found the yard filled with empty garden beds and ornamental, non-native plants.

Case, who works all day on a computer as an engineer, wanted to get his hands dirty.

He decided to slowly replace these plantings with native flowers and sedges that would become part of the local ecosystem. He signed up for Pollinator Palooza, a program run by local nonprofit Journeywork that provides homeowners with native plants that serve as habitat for insects and birds.

Since then, Case has planted mountain mint, goldenrods and asters, which have started to attract carpenter bees.

“It’s been really cool,” Case said. “Every morning when I would come out here, there’d be a bunch of them hanging around here on the goldenrods and the asters.”

Journeywork’s Pollinator Palooza program is open for signups through Nov. 20.