I like this project a lot. The site was formerly a degraded lawn with a shitty apple tree. It’s in a park next to two child-centric locations and a parking lot, so there is a lot of opportunity for it to be an enriching public education spot. My crew spent last year turning it into a dry creekbed garden full of native plants.
It takes about three years for a pollinator garden to really begin flourishing here, but even after the first season it’s so much nicer and supports a lot more wildlife. The creekbed even serves a dual role of diverting water away from the parking lot while storing it for the plants to minimise irrigation.
Milkweed and goldenrod are two of my staples. I think I have two species of the former and maybe four of the latter in this garden. If it’s native to your area, the Asclepias tuberosa/butterfly milkweed is the most productive perennial I use out of all the Colorado natives. A lot of home xeriscapers will plant Ascepias speciosa/showy milkweed, only for it to have a narrow host range and self-seed so prolifically that it crowds out other species. My crew pulls it in our gardens since we aren’t traditionally a monarch butterfly breeding area. I use Asclepias incarnata/swamp milkweed for wet areas, a huge draw for dragonflies, and butterfly milkweed in drier areas. There’s practically no maintenance with them and they stay put while still producing lots of seeds for guerilla gardening.
I have a wet around at the corner of our yard. We probably should some swamp around there.