Just after planting the garden it looked like this.
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Just after planting the garden it looked like this. |
The inspiration for the Estabrook Butterfly Garden came from a visit I paid to the New England Flower Show in March 2002. It was there that I met a representative from the National Wildlife Federation (which had an informational booth at the show) who described their Schoolyard Habitats program. Basically, this program encourages schools to install wildlife habitats to serve both conservation and education purposes. I thought that this program would be well suited to Estabrook School, especially since the Lexington Schools already have the Big Backyard walks to introduce children to conservation and nature.
I thought that the easiest wildlife habitat to start with would be a butterfly garden. I started a new PTA committee appropriately entitled "Schoolyard Habitats" to research and install a butterfly garden and any future habitats. (As an aside, our committee was also asked to take over maintenance of two other school garden plots in front of Estabrook that have now become a fall-flowering perennial garden and an herb garden). We obtained permission to use an area in front of the gym for the butterfly garden, as it would be viewed by parents,children and visitors in addition to receiving nearly full sun during the day. The ground was tilled, Lexington town compost was added, and the area mulched (the mulch was kindly provided by Eastern Landscaping).
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By July 2003 it looked like this. |
Now came the fun part: planting. We had several resources for choosing plants, especially the New England Wild Flower Society's publication on butterfly gardens. Our goals were to provide nectar for adult butterflies and food for caterpillars, trying to concentrate on native plants, and taking into consideration that our garden should be in flower in the spring and fall when the kids were in attendance at school. Adult butterflies will take nectar from a wide variety of plants, so choosing plants for nectar was relatively easy (buddleia, eupatorium, monarda, clethra, verbena, echinacea, rudbeckia, chelone, coreopsis, liatris, sedum, aster, vernonia, pycnanthemum, etc). However butterflies are selective in choosing "host plants" where they will lay eggs, and consequently where caterpillars hatch and feed, so we also needed to include plants to encourage egg-laying. Included in our garden are three varieties of milkweed (host for monarchs), spicebush (spicebush swallowtail), chelone (Baltimore Checkerspot), viola (fritillaries) and malva (hairstreaks). Annuals were added to supplement the perennials: one third grade class grew cosmos and zinnias to plant in the garden, and dill was direct seeded (host for swallowtails). The sources for most of our plants were donations from parents, from members of the Lexington Field and Garden Club, and from Lexington Gardens.
Our butterfly garden has been a great success, considering that it was only installed a year ago. Many butterflies have been observed, plus monarch and spicebush swallowtail caterpillars were seen feeding on their host plants. We hope to have continued success in future years. A bird garden is being planted this year!
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The caterpillar of a Monarch Butterfly |
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A Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillar |
Clipboard in hand, children from Joan Cunningham's third grade class at Bridge School headed out to their butterfly garden to look for plant-animal interactions. "Look! A huge bee just landed on that plant! You can see its mouth go into the flower." Jo Hannah Katz's second graders visit the garden to gather visual and verbal impressions for their poetry as well as to gather milkweed for their classroom caterpillars. As part of their science study, The Life Cycle of the Butterfly, they are raising monarch butterflies. This class also participates in the University of Kansas monarch-watch program in which fall monarchs are tagged before being released (http://www.monarchwatch.org). Students were thrilled to see some wild migrating monarchs visiting their garden. They follow the progress of these hardy butterflies via the Internet Journey North program (http://www.learner.org/jnorth).
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By August 2003 it looked like this. |
The simple concept that "monarchs need milkweed" is one that many K- 5 students will retain from their elementary years. And although that seems a small morsel of information, it has much wider ecological implications. That such an insignificant and maligned plant should be critical to the existence of the beautiful monarchs helps children to think about the value of plants in their neighborhoods. In addition, as they gather milkweed for the monarchs, they notice the world within the milkweed plant as they see orange aphids, red spotted ladybugs eating aphids, and crab spiders lying in wait. So, as you travel around Lexington schools don't be surprised at the wild habitats that have been cultivated to teach the next generation. (Bridge, Estabrook, Fiske, and Hastings all have gardens that provide habitats for wild butterflies.
Thanks to the many parent and community volunteers who have made this possible.)
"In the end we will conserve only what we love.
We will love only what we understand.
And we will understand only what we are taught." Baba Dhoum--Senegal
The Estabrook Library has a number of recommended books about butterflies.
Click here to look at the Estabrook Library's list of Gardening books.
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Last update 12/10/03 by webmaster DLK