“Our mission involves art, music and community and this is firmly in that camp of community, community building and improving our community,” said Headwaters School of Music and The Arts Executive Director Tricia Andrews.

Bemidji Community Planting

Downtown Bemidji is known for its vibrant scenery and the addition of fresh plants only adds to it. Several people were willing to get their hands dirty as a way to make Bemidji’s downtown landscape even more beautiful.

The Mississippi Headwaters Audubon Society and Headwaters School of Music and The Arts held a community planting event where anyone could learn about native plants and their benefits. The space is about 170 square feet but has a wider reach.

“Different birds and different other insects that will benefit from these plants,” said Mississippi Headwaters Audobon Society Representative Brick Fevold. “The different plants provide different resources of pollen and nectar that many of the species have co-adapted with over thousands of years.”

Anna Hamann was there along with her son and recalls moving to her home 10 years ago and not being able to grow squash because of the lack of pollinators. Hamann gained knowledge on pollinators and looks forward to applying it in her own backyard.

“Right now we have a lot of daisies growing there, that’s beautiful, but just having some more variety and some more things that the bees like would be good, more color, too, would be good,” said Hamann.

Other guests ranging from youth to adults put their best gardening skills to use and had a chance to install the native plants such as Pennsylvania Sedge. These are planted first because they’re a cover for the more fragile plants. That’s just one of the many things these planters can take away from this experience.

“This small section that we’re impacting, but the information gained and hopefully being inspired by the difference that this project can make, that’s what I’m hoping for and I think we’re off to a good start,” said Andrews.

Nearly 30 different species went into the ground, making for a total of 350 plants.

By — Haydee Clotter