You may have noticed a new bed along the south wall of the school. We had a turf stripper for our neighborly task of installing an entry garden at Horace Greeley Elementary School and it seemed a shame to take it back without taking a few minutes to strip turf from a new bed around the corner from our colorful nectar garden. After reading Dr. Tallamy's book "Bringing Nature Home" I will never consider insect use of a plant as damage. Is it lettuce damage when I have a salad? Well of course it is but I would never think of it that way! And when the monarch caterpillars strip my swamp milkweed it does look quite messy but the beauty of the parent butterflies sipping nectar at the same milkweed weeks earlier more than makes up for the mess. And if I am lucky I will get to watch a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis, again payback for putting up with "insect damage". That is why we are dedicating a not so public space along the side of the school to insect use. These plants will be beautiful and common milkweed has a wonderful scent but eventually these plants will be chewed up by monarch caterpillars. Thus our new lesson, how to see the beauty in insects using "our" plants next to "our" school to complete their beautiful and informative life cycle. Long before any building was on this land monarchs and milkweeds were at home here, let's invite them back. Let's have a Monarch Waystation Garden!
https://shop.monarchwatch.org/certificate/waystationcert.aspx
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