Monarch Waystation Garden
Highlights of our Second Year **
Crocus-Sighting Contest Winners Announced
As a follow-up to our planting of crocus bulbs last fall, we had a contest to see which child would see the first ones emerge in the spring. The bulbs were planted during Monarch Mania to introduce bulb-planting to young children and to encourage them to observe the garden at various times over the growing season. A family of three boys won the contest. They received a complete garden kit, including native plants, seeds and soil, to make their own pollinator garden.
Pollinators' Picnic Held Saturday June 3
The Monarch Garden area was the location of our second free family event which focused on creating a pollinator-friendly garden at home. Although well advertised at The Woods and surrounding neighborhoods, attendance was not as large as we had originally hoped for, due to the heat of the day and the fact that thunderstorms had been erroneously predicted for the beautiful, sunny day. Attendees loved it however, some coming back multiple times to make sure they saw everything.
The event had eight stations, four of which featured community organizations or programs apart from the club. Becky Guthrie represented The Monarch Alliance and highlighted home Waystation Gardens. The Haddock family from Honey Moon Apiary, including pre-teen beekeepers Jackson and Jase, presented information about bees developed by Jackson for his 4H Club and treated us to Honey Lemonade. The Woods Recycling Program, headed by Ken Valcourt, featured a fun Garbage Bag Recycling game which rewarded each player with a prize. Melanie Files and Rick Lowman, Master Composters, showed each of us the easy way to compost our kitchen scraps.
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Our club rounded out the program with pollinator garden kits comprised of 30 gallon grow bags, 8 plants, 6 sets of seeds, sample planting plans, and relevant information to get off to a good start. In addition, native plant starts were available for individual donations and free seed packs were given away. We appreciate the partnership with Colonial Farm Nursery who assisted with the mechanics of germinating the sale plants. Finally, we provided free crafts kits for kids and adults which utilized mostly recycled items and highlighted needs of the pollinators in our gardens: Butterfly Puddler, Bee Waterer (shown below), Mason Bee House, Insect Sampling Tool, Sunflower Garden Decoration (with seeds), Butterfly/ Bird Buffet (an easy feeder), How to Make Seed Bombs, and Coloring Pages.
** It was hard to know when our first year ended and our second (current) year began. In 2022 we began our preparation in February with the removal of ornamental grass and sod at the planting site. However, we actually received our plants from the Monarch Alliance in early June and our annual report for them is due in mid-June. So we included the two activities above in both years.
Spring Work Parties Held
Lucy Williams, who is coordinating the ongoing development and maintenance of the garden, held a number of work parties. Some minimal weed pulling was necessary early in the spring but the garden was left largely alone in order to respect the inhabitants which were still hibernating.
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In late May, work parties cleaned up the garden in preparation for Pollinators' Picnic and the planting of some more native plants purchased during the Monarch Alliance Plant Sale. In addition, more French Marigolds and some new types of Milkweed, being grown especially for us by Colonial Farm Nursery, were added in early June by several more teams of club members.
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These hard working teams were all business and unfortunately we have only one photo which shows some of the French Marigolds ready for planting. We found that these particular Marigolds did a good job of deterring the deer last year so we are keeping our fingers crossed that they will work well again for us.
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Individual club members or couples will take turn watering and maintaining the garden as necessary in two-week stints using SignUpGenius again, an app that works very well for this purpose.
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The garden was showcased again on our Woods Home and Garden Tour in July. The proceeds from the sale of tickets for the tour will help us continue to have free family events and add to the garden.