START SMALL, BUT START.
Journeywork can help you transform part of your lawn to a native pollinator garden, providing habitat and food for insects, birds, and animals and reducing your need for fossil-fuel intensive upkeep.
It’s our mission to make conversion easy and affordable for homeowners. If you’re an experienced gardener, you may be attracted to our popular DIY Pollinator Palooza program, now available spring and fall. You’ll select your own 4X12 foot garden site, and the $75 fee gives you a plan, directions, and a set of shade or sun plants.
If you’re looking for a custom design or more assistance with site prep and installation, you’re a candidate for our yard design program. You’ll receive a professional consultation from Paige, followed by a project estimate. Once you sign a contract, you’ll receive a detailed proposal tailored to your site.
Your costs with Journeywork will be lower compared to the fees for a professional landscape firm. Our plant plugs, sourced from responsible nurseries, are cheaper than retail, while our capable volunteers provide labor at no cost to you. They’re participating in a movement that helps build community and strengthen fragile ecosystems, one yard at a time. On installation day you can work side by side with our volunteers and learn more about your plants; you’ll also receive maintenance instructions.
We encourage homeowners with Journeywork yards to host “Not-a-Lawn Parties” when the garden is flourishing and invite our volunteers and your neighbors and friends to enjoy the transformation! We also count on you to document your blossoming plants in photos and help us share them on social media and spread the word that the bugs, bees, and birds in your neighborhood have gotten a boost.
Interested? Here are your next steps:
- click here for Pollinator Palooza (during spring registration 4/1-5/15 or fall registration 9/1/-10/15)
- click here to request a yard consult ($50) and individualized project estimate
Programs & Projects
Native Plant Installations & Not-a-Lawn Parties: We are aided by a growing group of volunteers who come together to replace turfgrass with native plants in residential yards, at schools–anywhere with a lawn! Our volunteers are the best!
After installation, we have a not-a-lawn party to celebrate and share the garden’s story with friends and neighbors. (see photos of our installations and not-a-lawn parties below our program descriptions)
Pollinator Palooza: Launched in the fall of 2023, this program gives yard owners instructions for turning a 4X12 section of their lawn into a pollinator garden. Participants picked up 28 landscape plugs in May 2024 and received a garden map with planting and care tips. We signed up 46 yards in 2023 and 107 yards in fall 2024. Below are photos of the plants, our volunteers who helped some participants install their gardens, participants picking up their plants, and a few Pollinator Palooza gardens.
Consultations & Workshops: We work with homeowners, neighborhood groups, schools, municipalities, and congregations to help them plan pollinator gardens. We also hold seasonal gatherings and workshops where members of the Journeywork community can hear from local experts and learn new skills.
Plant grants: We give grants up to $500 for plants, including design and installation assistance, to schools and other nonprofit organizations
Presentations: We are happy to talk with township environmental advisory committees, civic groups, HOAs, school groups, and church committees.
Check out photos of our work below!
Native Plant Installations:
wetland garden installed in May 2023 and first blooms in May 2024
invasive ornamental garden removed in June 2023 and blooms in August 2024 (above right and closer views below)
pachysandra and thistle patch in November 2023, planted in May 2024 with sedges, blue mistflower, and other native shade plants, above right in October 2024
pollinator strip created by spreading cardboard and mulch over lawn in October 2022, planted in spring 2023, above right in August 2024
And our not-a-lawn parties!
