I'm Juanita Salisbury, a landscape architect in Palo Alto, California. I started this page initially to promote fund-raising for creating a pollinator garden and habitat close to my house. After driving by a parkway in the neighborhood for a couple of years, walking through neighborhood pollinator deserts and really wanting a larger garden space, I contacted the city of Palo Alto to see if I could
transform this space into a pollinator garden. They were intrigued, and after designing a garden and habitat, they gave me the green light to make it happen. The site is in a parkway located between Primrose Way and Embarcadero Road in Palo Alto. In 2016 we changed the plantings from lawn to a California native plant habitat with dozens of plant species. In the years since we installed this garden, 4 more gardens were installed, with a corridor habitat project as our newest project to connect two of the gardens. While walking through the residential neighborhoods in the area I am always struck by the differences in the amount of life in the front yards. Yards with native plants are alive with bees, butterflies, and birds of all kinds. Yards featuring mostly non-native plants are still, quiet and devoid of the buzz of activity elsewhere. Most yards do not provide year-long nectar, pollen or habitat for native pollinators and other insects. The neighborhoods are pollinator and insect deserts. Bees and other insects are struggling from habitat loss, less biodiversity, and pollution among other things. By planting locally native plants and engaging in best practices, these are easy and beautiful ways to support the abundance of life that will follow.
