How we can help the pollinators

Pollinators are in trouble. They've been in dramatic decline over the last 40 years.

Pollinators need food all year-round, as well as places to live and raise their young. We can use our gardens to help provide them with what they need.

Pollinator Pathmaker by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, does just this.

Pollinator Pathmaker, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, 2021

Pollinator Pathmaker is a new, permanent, 55-metre-long, living artwork that explores the vital role of pollinators.

The seeds for this unique artwork were planted in Autumn 2021, and now the work has sprouted and blossomed, ready for both the ‘human’ public and pollinating species - including bees, moths, beetles, and wasps - to engage with and enjoy.

The unique artwork - made from 7000 plants, from 64 species - seeks to challenge what a garden is, and who it is for. The ambition is that Pollinator Pathmaker acts as a global campaign; a call to take action against pollinator decline, as well as an artwork; to make art for pollinators, planted and cared for by humans.

You too can be part of Pollinator Pathmaker by creating a garden plan at: pollinator.art

The website uses a special algorithm where plants ‘empathetic’ to pollinating insects are suggested in a unique design plan generated for each gardener’s plot size and garden conditions. Every garden planted – from backyard to windowsill to country field – is also then part of the living artwork designed and tended with empathy for pollinators, not humans.

Pollinator Pathmaker has been developed in collaboration with Eden’s expert network of horticulturists, scientists and advisors. This includes the National Wildflower Centre which is based at the Eden Project, Eden’s master beekeeper Rodger Dewhurst and pollination experts including Professor David Goulson and Marc Carlton. Machine-learning expert and string theory physicist, Dr Przemek Witaszczyk of Jagiellonian University, Kraków, worked with Ginsberg to develop the algorithms behind the planting programme.

Listen to the audio to discover more about Pollinator Pathmaker and how to make your own garden for pollinators from the artist, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg.

Continue the trail to learn how the pollinators help us.