Engineering

As part of our commitment to educate citizens alongside the Mayors’ Monarch Pledge, our crews have replaced the annual and perennial ornamentals plantings outside the Madison Municipal Building (MMB) with 100% native shortgrass prairie species.

As you walk down Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd in the years to come, don’t be surprised if you see more than one monarch butterfly pollinating a single meadow blazing star. You may be delighted to find bumblebees hanging upside-down from the delicate purple blossoms of nodding onion. As you walk past in the fall, you might notice the rich aroma of prairie dropseed. If your curiosity gets the better of you, the plant labels will identify whatever has caught your eye.

 
We hope that this new planting will be educational to interested passersby, provide valuable nectar and habitat to beneficial insects, and be a colorful addition to the MMB landscaping. 

 

By: Emily Jorgenson, City of Madison Engineering Division, ejorgenson@cityofmadison.com