SAN DIEGO, Calif. — A group of volunteers is beautifying yards and public spaces in the city of Lemon Grove for free.

What You Need To Know

  • The Busy Bee Garden Co-Op is a volunteer group where neighbors help neighbors to install gardens in Lemon Grove

  • They plant native plants to help create habitat for pollinators like bees and butterflies

  • The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says pollinator populations face threats from habitat loss, pesticide use and the decline of native vegetation

  • The Busy Bees hope others will be inspired to help people and pollinators

Homeowner Erik Hauenstein is a part of the Busy Bee Garden Co-Op, a volunteer group where neighbors help neighbors to install gardens in Lemon Grove.

Hauenstein has helped makeover several gardens within the community and now it’s time for the Busy Bees to help him turn a barren slope at his home into a habitat for pollinators like bees and butterflies. The group is planting important native plants like yarrow and narrowleaf milkweed, along with orange and lemon trees.

“I’m ready to provide pollen and homes for butterflies and bees and everything good, things that really need support right now,” Hauenstein said.  

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said pollinator populations face threats from habitat loss, pesticide use and the decline of native vegetation.

Jeanette Lowdon is the Busy Bee garden designer and said each garden is a small piece to a bigger pollinator pathway.

“Where we’re planning Erik’s garden today, maybe there’ll be a garden over here or next door that decides ‘I want to put in some native plants so the pollinators have a pathway to go from this garden to this,’” Lowdon said.  

A few miles away on the same day, Chelsea Gastelum, the founder and queen bee of the Busy Bees, is helping to install a pollinator conservation garden at San Altos Elementary School in Lemon Grove with help from Wild Ones.  

Gastelum started by growing and giving away native plants, but soon realized she could offer more support if she recruited other passionate community members. She is proud of the big impact her small group is having on their community.

“We’re doing it all over our city, in both yards and in public spaces, in schools and everything; so we’re excited with how far we’ve been able to come!” she said.

So far, Gastelum and her crew have helped establish pollinator gardens at The Dartmoor Naturehood Project, Mariposa Lane (The Secret Path of Lemon Grove), Lemon Grove Bistro, Lemon Grove Historical Society, San Altos Elementary, and many homes around the city.

Hauenstein hopes this swarm of giving that is helping people and pollinators will inspire others.

“I think it’s the sense of community and taking care of each other and thinking about each other and also helping the environment,” he said. “Kind of focusing those two things together is the most important thing to me.”

The Busy Bees Garden Co-Op also partners with Monarch Fellowship, Wild Ones and Xerces Society to help provide native plants and fund their bigger garden projects.