Daniel Stralka memorial pollinator habitat garden

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Daniel Stralka memorial pollinator habitat garden at Dominican University aims to help educate the community on landscape concepts that are water wise , firesmart and support biodiversity

The garden is centrally located at Dominican University in an area frequented by
students, staff and pedestrians. The garden has been designed primarily using
plants identified by calscape.org as native to the area and rated for low to very low

water consumption. The irrigation needs of the garden are being met using rain wa-
ter catchment in a 3000 gallon tank that collects water from the rooftop of nearby
Albertus Magnus Hall, which has been calculated to have the capacity to collect

8.200 gallons of water with 1” of rain. It is anticipated that within three years of av-
erage annual rain, the plants will be fully established and only need supplemental
water during drought conditions.

The garden was designed using 5 plant islands that each showcase a different con-
cept: 1) year-round blooms, 2) planting for birds, 3) butterfly-friendly plants, 4)

plants for shade or partial shade, and 5) planting under oak trees.
Despite having only been installed in December 2022, seeds were collected from 10
species of plants in 2023. Over 1000 seed packets have already been distributed in
the community and will also be made available (free of charge) to garden visitors on
the day of the tour.

All planning for the garden (design, fundraising, coordinating volunteers and con-
tractors) was completed by volunteers, including Dominican students.

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