Tallis made a wish, and it changed everything...

Tallis is our superstar environmental educator.

Each year, she leads more than 50 workshops throughout Asheville and WNC helping groups launch recycling programs, start composting, and especially this fall, plant pollinator habitat.

We had a planting day recently—a hot, hands-in-the-dirt garden day. 

You know the kind of day where everyone is really proud at the end, but also really ready to take a shower?

But Tallis didn’t race to her car with everyone else.

Instead she stood back, looking at the handiwork of a handful of amazing volunteers, and made this wish:

“I wish we had more plants.”

More is More…

Here’s the thing: 

Saving our native pollinators is a numbers game.

More = more.

That’s why we’re planting as much native pollinator habitat as possible on public land, and supporting folks who want to plant and certify pollinator habitat in their own yards and on their back patios.

All our hoop houses are currently full of trees growing for our tree adoption events. 

Bee City Lends a Stem...

Tallis’ wish got everyone thinking.

What if we did have more plants?

Imagine it! 

With plants on hand, when spring rolls around, we could skip ready-set and just go out and plant even more public pollinator habitat, expand the habitat we already have, and support community plantings.

As we talked more about Tallis’ wish, more and more of our Bee City “Pollenteers” began offering to share the native pollinator plants that would have to be thinned out of their own gardens this fall.

Then the question became: Where can we put these plants?

That’s when our GreenWorks team got resourceful. 

Operations Director Eric Bradford made space for Tallis’ pollinator “plant bank” at our Sand Hill Tree Nursery, and started hunting for a hoop house to protect the plants this winter.

Investing in a Native Pollinator Plant Bank...

With so many Bee City Pollenteers excited to donate plants, pollinator superhero and Bee City USA-Asheville Leadership Committee member Bryan Tompkin joined the hunt for an affordable hoop house, for soil and supplies, and for funds to support the native plant bank. 

That’s what we love about this community—it is full of creative, resourceful people like Tallis, Bryan, and all our Bee City Pollenteers who are taking action to create a resilient future for themselves, their community, and the native pollinators we rely on. 

We don’t accept an “oh well, there’s nothing I can do” future by default.

Forget that.

We’re here for the best-case scenario. 

And to make that happen, we’re taking action to build the future Asheville we want to live in. 

If the best-case scenario is something you want for yourself and your family, we’d love to see you add your support by making a donation. 

Your gift today will go toward installing a native pollinator plant hoop house and buying supplies to feed the plants that feed the pollinators that run our local food ecosystem.