A Huge Thank You!

 Thank you to all of the generous families who took such good care of the Learning Garden this summer.  As you can see the garden looks fabulous!  And a very big thanks to the wonderful Mr. Nelson who installed our water barrel and kept it full even through our incredibly dry summer.  The butterflies are thrilled and so are we.  Thank you! 

The first Jack.

Jack 1 Hatches

It happened on July 3 in Muskoka.  And after that every time we saw a Monarch we wondered if that was the one we released.

Introducing Jack 1's Hatch

I  will write more later!

 From Spencer.

Summer garden report, week 1

The thunderstorm on Tuesday saved us a watering trip, but with the hot weather yesterday and tomorrow we wanted to give everything a good soaking.  Campbell helped me water while Harper checked for caterpillars.  She found 2 small monarchs, and named them Susan and Kelley.  We also watched a big fat bee hang out on the anise hyssop.  I am glad to see that the pussytoes are coming back after the American Lady invasion of a few weeks back.  Wonder if we'll get more eggs this summer?

I got a report from Jackson that the grade 3 butterfly did make it (even though the chrysalis was a bit misshapen), and a report back from the grade 1 family that one Jack also made it to butterfly stage.  In total, we raised 7 caterpillars and released 6 of them this Spring/Summer in classrooms, each one just as amazing as the last.  I am hoping to get pictures of the 2 remaining butterfly releases posted.

Summer watering

Thank you to all the families who have volunteered to water the garden this summer.  Our week started today, although I did stop by the garden on Friday to water and again on Saturday to mulch.  By Saturday, the rain barrel was completely empty - in fact, it was slowing down so much by Friday that we didn't get a really good water in (and Mr. Nelson wasn't in to help out).   So, after a nice hot weekend, I decided to load up my trunk with water and give everything a deep soaking today.  Lesson:  Always make sure the rain barrel is full going into a hot weekend (or make sure you get the garden watered well beforehand).

While I was in the garden, a white cabbage butterfly came by to check out the verbena.  If you look at the picture carefully, you can see its proboscis sipping nectar.    

Everything is in great shape!

A Welcoming Spot

Today was a big day for signage.  We had multiple families contribute to both the large "Welcome to the Garden" sign and also the small individual plants.  We set up a table with some of the caterpillar creatures for students to look at during the barbeque.  The garden looked lovely and we even had a bunch of monarchs visit throughout the afternoon.   Fen Fen, our black swallowtail, was working on its chrysalis which was very exciting for the grade 1's to see today.  Jack and Jack, the grade 1 monarchs, never made it out of their chrysalides but they are in great care by a grade 1 family and we're hoping to get some pictures posted when they do eclose!

The cycle continues...

Today little Matthew, the grade 4 learning garden caterpillar, became a butterfly and was released to the garden.  It was still in the garden at the end of the day and waited until a crowd of people had gathered around to finally fly away.  I wish someone (including me) had thought to snap a photo but it was just so magical that we were all transfixed.  This is the first butterfly that came entirely from the learning garden - our students found the eggs on our milkweed plant.

Speaking of eggs, I think I found a few on the new pussytoes and definitely on the milkweed.  The cycle continues!

We have some new signage that we will be unveiling for the final day of school.  Thanks, team!

Garden visitor during garden meeting

 The lovely and talented garden crew was meeting today to discuss signage, watering, and other important garden topics when we were greeted with a special visitor - a female monarch, coming to sip verbena nectar.  I checked some of the milkweed plants after school and we do have a new set of eggs!  My first instinct was to pluck the eggs off so we could raise them in a classroom. Then I remembered we only have 2 more days of school.  Going forward, it will be more fun to leave the eggs/caterpillars on the plants.

I love this picture that Susie snapped because it has our bike gear in the background.  Butterflies and bikes - a great morning combination.