Wilson Garden now has a Butterfly Garden !

As you may or may not know our bees and in general pollinators (butterflies, wasps, etc) are decreasing at an alarming rate. In the past four or five years entire bee colonies in USA and around the world are dying for still unknown causes, the so called Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD  . The production of 1/3 of the food produced in USA depend on the hard work of this little creatures, we in general associate to painful stings or honey. Bees are the major pollinators for fruit trees, vegetables and flowers, the base of our food chain.

So when Christel Wells, a Wilson parent and an expert gardener, came to me and proposed to create a Butterfly Garden near our vegetable garden I immediately accepted.

Greenfield Plant Farm kindly donated the plants, happy to help 
providing the garden with a live laboratory to learn about butterflies 
and other insects.

On a weekend Martin and Christel Wells came over to the garden and 
prepared the bed. Pull out the grass, dig the hard clay
and donating top notch soil.

The following day Christel shared her expertise with her daughter's class and taught them landscaping design and the art of transplanting. Kids had a blast and the work was so intense that no picture were taken. But this is the result.....

...a state of the art Butterfly Garden with all sorts of plants and flowers all labelled for anyone interested  to learn more, that will attract butterflies and bees as well.

We now have a happy and lively garden with many butterflies of all kinds of colors, from white to yellow to light blue to orange, a place where kids can learn about the importance of taking care also of little creatures so important for our survival.

The Butterfly Garden will soon be joined by huge Sunflowers we recently seeded in the big garden plot. As nor the Garden nor the school use any kind of pesticides, the bees and butterflies will surely enjoy a safe and healthy place where to live.

 

(The Working Bee kindly donated by Ron & Diana Reynolds)

We hope the Anderson Twp. community will get inspired visiting our Butterfly Garden and plant some yellow and blue flowers in the backyard, reduce the use of pesticides and help the bees thrive again.

Thank to all!