Oxford’s mini meadow, part of the Oxford Pollinator Program and located near the corner of Wesley St. and Fletcher St., is planted with a regionally-native mix of flowering pollinator plants and grasses. All the plants are perennial, coming back year after year, providing nectar and habitat for butterflies, hummingbirds, bees, etc. Annual millet has also been planted as a “nurse crop” this first year only. This helps the wild flowers germinate and thrive.
The meadow will take a couple years to mature, as the plants are putting down deep roots their first year. You can see some coreopsis blooming already, though! If this experiment is successful, we can contemplate other parts of the rights-of-way that could be converted to relatively low-maintenance pollinator habitat.
