This blog is for the children, teachers , parents and friends of Monroe Academy. Its purpose is to provide a place to archive the Butterfly Garden and activities related to the garden. Contributions and ideas are welcome! This will also be a great resource for parents who sign up for the Butterfly Garden Committee. The garden is located next to the Preschool building, but there are plans to expand the Outdoor Classroom throughout the campus.
We are in need of some items for the garden. It would be great to have these items prior to the open house in April!!
These are some of the items needed:
- one large rubbermaid type container to hold tools and other items - plants –annuals like zinnias and cosmos - plants- perennials (Walmart now has a limited selection) - two or three large pots around 16 inches or more - potting soil for container gardens - any flowering plants from your yard that can be divided - large stepping stones (the concrete ones you can find at Walmart) - outdoor thermometer - rain gauge - butterfly house - bluebird house- to be placed in another area - watering can - Jiffy (or other brand) seed starting kit. - large terra cotta saucer
We have already had a donation of pine straw! Thank you!!
We also need to have a workday- to clean up the garden, add mulch, fix container gardens, and to put in brick border.
Pattie Welch, Cami Welch's mom, is hosting a Madelyn and Friends Clothing Show onTuesday, March 17 at the Beehive Coffee & Books in Downtown Monroeville from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm.
A portion of the proceeds of this sale will benefit the Butterfly Garden, so please come and shop!
Madelyn and Friends is owned by Monroeville's Martha Moorer and her daughter Vicki Golden.
Pattie is giving away a $50 gift certificate -There are several ways to enter this contest- you get a chance to win for doing any of the following:
visit the madelyn and friends blog and become a 'follower' http://madelynandfriends.blogspot.com/, come to the show, bring someone with you to the show who is new to Madelyn and Friends, sign up to be on Madelyn and Friends email list, and place an order.
You get a chance to win for doing each of the above!!
This week I was excited to see that some of the plants in the garden are showing signs of life! The verbena, butterfly bushes, sweet peas, bog salvia, and parsley made it through the winter. The fennel we planted last spring has reseeded and there are four or five small fennel plants. The aster, sedum, coneflower, shasta daisy, daylily, and gerber daisy plants are coming up. Fortunately, due to the cypress mulch, there are only a few weeds in the garden.
There are a few projects that will need to be done in the next month.
The garden needs a ‘ButterflyGarden’ sign. One idea is to have the children in the K-4 classes paint on ceramic tiles, the letters to spell out ButterflyGarden and/or pictures of butterflies, flowers, caterpillars, etc.
In March 2008, the ground was broken for the Butterfly Garden at the Monroe Academy Preschool.
The goal was to create an outdoor classroom. We thought it would be wonderful for the children to be able to have some hands on involvement in the project. Eventually, we hope that this project will provide the children with a beautiful outdoor classroom.
I am posting a couple of websites that provide information about Outdoor Classrooms.
An outdoor classroom site is an outdoor area (or areas) on the school grounds that provides hands-on, outdoor learning opportunities and allows students of all ages to utilize multiple-disciplinary skills including math, science, history, geography, and the language arts in a fun and exciting environment. An outdoor classroom site is designed to attract wildlife by providing elements crucial to wildlife survival including food, water, cover from predators, and places to raise young. Outdoor classrooms can include raised bed gardens, vegetable gardens, herb gardens, butterfly gardens, wildflower meadows, theme gardens, forest communities, aquatic studies areas, ponds, bog gardens, courtyards, nature trails, animal tracking boxes, weather stations, and a variety of other components that provide hands-on learning opportunities for students.
One goal is for our school to become a member of the Alabama Wildlife Federation. Membership would supply our school with useful information and opportunities.
Update- We are sending the application to the Alabama Wildlife Federation next week. So, we should have the resources they provide members very soon!
There is information regarding grants for schools. We applied for one grant in March 2008; however, we were not chosen as a recipient. Luckily, our current headmaster has been extremely supportive of this endeavor.
After the ground was broken, we prepared the soil and planted the nectar and host plants. We received some plants and mulch from our neighbor, Mockingbird Nursery. The other plants were donated by parents. We did our best to find plants that would attract butterflies and that were appropriate for our area. We also planted mostly perennials which will come back every year.
To see the plants that we planted, scroll down the page to view the document "Flowers in our garden." This document will be updated as new plants are added. It is also a source where the success or failure of the plants can be recorded
Then the fun part! The children in the K-4 classes had been growing seedlings inside for weeks. Each child was able to plant some of these seedlings in the garden.
placement of plants in March 2008 The students helped by watering the garden. We watched the garden grow, but we did not have butterflies right away. Unfortunately, it took some time for the butterflies to find the plants. We had Fennel, Dill and Parsley planted to attract Black Swallowtail Butterflies.
We did have some setbacks during the summer. There was more rainfall than usual, and there is a downspout off the building that floods the area. That coupled with some accidental over watering and four inches of cypress mulch caused havoc on the drought hardy varieties that were planted. In late August, we diverted the downspout and monitored the watering. Luckily, many of the plants revived.
In June and August, we had black swallowtail caterpillars on the Host plants. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Black_Swallowtail_Papilio_polyxenes_1700px.jpg The Black Swallowtail Caterpillar is black yellow and white, but it starts out as an egg that is very small. These photos show some of the transition from egg to caterpillar. The first photo shows the eggs- they are very small and yellowish in color. The second photo shows an immature caterpillar- they are black with a light ring around the middle. The third photo shows a mature caterpillar.
The caterpillars that we had in August did not make it- in all likelihood due to pesticides that were used in the area to control ants. In the future, there needs to be a sign to inform anyone spraying to avoid the vicinity of the garden.
Here are more pictures of the garden- note that the zinnias which were planted by the students - were the prettiest and brightest flowers in the garden- and at times there would be ten butterflies in the garden at one time.
Notice the orange butterflies on the flowers.
This butterfly is brown and orange,
Click on the link 'M A Butterfly Garden: Flowers in our garden' to see details of the plants used in the garden.
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