You’ve probably heard by now that bees and butterflies are in trouble. If they are to be saved, those who are children now will need to step up to the challenge. Earlier this month, students from the Bridge Street Elementary School in Northampton gathered in the school’s cafeteria to help to design a pollinator-friendly garden for the school.
The project is the brainchild of Jessica Tanner, a member of the Western Mass Pollinator Networks and mother of a Bridge Street kindergartener. Among its many initiatives, WMPN is working to create a pollinator pathway through downtown Northampton that will provide more food sources for pollinators and also educate the public about the importance of pollinators to our lives. The Bridge Street School garden will be part of that pathway.
The 70 or so students, a mix of kindergartners, first- and third-graders, spent the early part of the hour-long session learning some basic facts about pollinators and their needs. Larri Cochran, a core group member of the WMPN, began by asking the group: “What’s a pollinator?” Children offered their ideas about butterflies and flowers, and the group soon agreed that pollinators move pollen from plant to plant in order to make new plants. “It’s easier to say that we’re creating a butterfly garden,” said Cochran, “but it’s really for all pollinators, including bees and hummingbirds.”
To engage the children’s curiosity, Cochran brought in a newly hatched swallowtail butterfly in a glass jar. She explained that she was planning to release the butterfly at the Smith College Botanical Garden, where she had recently released two others. As the children carefully handed around the jar, Cochran explained that it was a male. “You can tell because it has only blue on the backs of its wings, whereas the females have both blue and yellow.” “It’s a boy!” the kids shouted with great excitement.
Cochran next asked the children to consider what pollinators need for food. Some of the children knew that monarch butterflies like to eat milkweed. Cochran explained that swallowtails eat some of the same foods that we do, including dill, fennel and parsley. She passed around small potted samples of these plants. As the children examined the plants, they also smelled the leaves. “This smells like licorice,” observed one student as he sniffed the feathery leaves of the bronze fennel. “Dill pickles!” said another. A third student added, “we could make dill pickles with the dill.”
Cochran brought the group’s attention back to pollinators with a third item for their inspection: a swallowtail chrysalis. This is a small, light brown pod that the caterpillar creates around itself. I can’t speak for the children, but I was fascinated to imagine that in the small sealed chamber, a black, yellow and green-striped caterpillar was metamorphosing into a butterfly. Cochran said that while a monarch caterpillar stays in its chrysalis for only two weeks, a swallowtail caterpillar—just like the one the children had seen in the ja—spends the entire winter in the chrysalis and emerges as a butterfly in the spring.
Next, Cochran told the children about what pollinators need to thrive: a constant source of water, three-seasons of pollen- and nectar-producing flowers, and places to live and lay eggs. She explained that as people build more houses and roads, the natural habitat of pollinators disappears.
For the second part of the session, the students divided into small groups of six or so. Each group was given a box of crayons and a very large sheet of paper to sketch on. To help the students design their gardens, Cochran gave each group 12 pictures of flowers that pollinators particularly enjoy as well as host plants that caterpillars feed on. Plants for springtime included host plants garden rue, dill and bronze fennel. Summer bloomers included butterfly weed and black-eyed Susans, and autumn flowers included New England asters and goldenrod.
Cochran told the children to “design the way nature designs, putting clusters of the same plant together.” She added, “this way, the pollinator has a buffet to choose from. If it likes the coneflower, it can go from flower to flower and not have to fly far away to find another one.”
Armed with their cards and crayons, each group inspected the flower pictures and set about drawing. Different colored circles on the paper marked each season: green for spring, blue for summer, orange for fall. Some children hewed closely to the pictures on the cards and carefully copied the name of the flower next to each drawing. Others drew big bold flowers and populated their gardens with butterflies and other creatures.
Owen Wormser of Local Harmony, a company that specializes in creating sustainable environments, will use the students’ design schemes to create a masterplan for the garden. It will be installed with the help of parents and children over the summer in seven raised beds against the outside wall of the school on the large playground side. The garden will be fully fledged when school starts again in the fall. “I love the power of a group of people to get things done,” said Tanner, smiling.
Bridge Street principal Beth Choquette was on hand to talk to the students and help with the design process. “This ties in nicely to what we’re already doing in the garden,” she said. Bridge Street School has a School Sprouts program that enables students to create and maintain their own garden. In 2015, Historic Northampton, whose property adjoins the school, agreed to let the school community build raised garden beds on its property. The students tend the garden beds and enjoy the harvest. “Kids take ownership of things they grow from seed,” said Choquette. It’s exciting if they can pick it and eat it. They take pride and ownership in something they created. Even in the rain, we’re out there gardening.”
I can’t say that every child sat attentively and quietly for the entire hour. Distractions are inevitable in learning situations like these (no matter how old the participants!). But I sensed that at the end of the hour, each child had a deeper understanding of the important work performed by the insects, birds and plants they see all around them.
Mickey Rathbun, an Amherst-based lawyer turned journalist, has written the Get Growing column since 2016.
On June 1, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge will offer a container gardening workshop led by Jenna O’Brien, owner of Viridissima Horticulture and Design. O’Brien will explain how she uses containers in the landscape to enhance and extend seasonal beauty, produce food and create an authentic sense of place. She will give a slideshow and hands-on demonstration of how she carries out her container designs from functional and conceptual design to pot, plant and soil selection. Students will then create their own pots to bring home. All material fees included in the price of the class. Members: $80/nonmembers: $95. For more information and to register, go to: berkshirebotanical.org.
The Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Photography Group will meet June 6, from 5 to 7 p.m. This is a new initiative for those wishing to experience gardens and nature through photography. The group meets every other Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Garden’s Education Center, 5 West Stockbridge Road in Stockbridge. Photographers of all levels are welcome. Upcoming sessions are June 6 and 20, (no meeting July 4) July 18, August 1, 15, and 29.
BBG’s Photography Group comes out of a growing interest in exploring gardens and nature through photography in a shared setting with planned activities, events, and friendly competitions. The group is open to all active Garden members. BBG membership offers many valuable benefits, including unlimited access to BBG’s beautiful grounds year-round. Additional information is available by emailing the group’s organizer, Steven Glicksman at: glicksman@aol.com
On June 8 from 9:30 to 11 a.m., Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston will host a container planting session with Betsy Williams, a nationally acclaimed teacher and writer who combines her floral and gardening skills with extensive knowledge of history, plant lore and seasonal celebrations. Participants will fill a 14-inch container with colorful plants, such as Persian shield, coleus, geraniums, lantana, salvia and sweet potato vine, which thrive in the summer heat but, with proper care, will happily flourish well into September. Fee includes materials. Members: $80/nonmembers: $94
Another exciting opportunity at Tower Hill on June 8 from 1 to 2 p.m. is a presentation on water features for the residential garden by award-winning landscape architect Paul Maue. Maue will give an armchair tour of 10 different gardens, each with a special water feature that enhances and compliments the surrounding ornamental plantings. Design ideas will be presented, along with technical commentary and photographs taken at all stages of the construction process. As Maue will demonstrate, water reflects color, while sounds from flowing water create distinctive sensations adding to each garden’s own personality. These elements are often architectural in character, helping to bridge the connection from building to the landscape, and can be the focus of many garden compositions. Members: $15/nonmembers: $25. For more information and to register, go to: towerhillbg.
On June 9, from 1 to 3 p.m., Tower Hill will offer a presentation on constructing and maintaining a rock garden with hardy succulents and companion plants. Art Scarpa, an experienced grower and founder of the Cactus and Succulent Society of Massachusetts, will discuss soil mixes, where to buy wonderful colorful plants and how to care for them. In addition to hardy succulents, there are many companion plants including native perennials and dwarf conifers that are beautiful even in winter. Scarpa will bring along a selection of hardy live plants that thrive in sunny New England rock gardens. Scarpa was awarded an honorary Gold Medal for horticultural excellence by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 2013. Members: $26/nonmembers: $40. For more information and to register, go to: towerhillbg.org
Six exceptional home gardens as well as a set of demonstration plots highlighting pollinator habitat gardening are featured on this year’s Northampton Garden Tour, which will take place June 8 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., rain or shine. The tour raises funds for the Friends of Forbes Library, Inc. to sponsor programming, events and projects at the library. In addition to raising these funds, the tour is meant to inspire and educate garden lovers with a variety of appealing landscape styles, collections of garden plantings, and approaches to garden design. The tour takes a scenic 10 mile route by car or bicycle. Tickets provide driving directions to this self-guided tour. At each garden, there are descriptions of the plantings and volunteer garden guides on hand to answer questions.
Tour tickets in advance: $15, available at Cooper’s Corner, State Street Fruit Store, Hadley Garden Center, Bay State Perennial Farm (Whately), and Forbes Library. Day of tickets: $20 available only at Forbes Library.
The tour also offers a raffle – Win organic compost, gift certificates, garden supplies, a landscape consultation, and more. View baskets and buy raffle tickets (2/$5, 5/$10 or 12/$20) near gardens #6 and 7 on the day of the tour. Raffle drawing will take place at the end of the tour. Whether you are a gardener or garden admirer, there is bound to be a basket you will want to take home. Preview baskets online at: forbeslibrary.org/friends/events/garden-tour/ or facebook.com/nohogardentour. For more information, contact Deena at 413-320-2804 or Jody at jody.kabloom@gmail.com