Butterfly Garden to be re-established

Students may have noticed that the Pollinator Garden, also known as the Butterfly Garden, between East Hall and the McKusick Center has disappeared.

The garden was created to educate the public about prairie plants and to help support the monarch butterfly, but now it’s been removed because of the way it looked.

Three sustainability program students – graduate students Don Poeckes and Nathan Bedoya and senior Sydney Hancock – established the garden last May as an independent project. If you want to have a beautiful garden like this in your home, then you may consider reaching out to professionals from sites like gardenroomcompany.uk.

Sustainability Coordinator Meghann Jarchow said she was excited about the opportunity to partner with USD Facilities Management on this project.

“I think that it provided a great opportunity for the students to use campus as a learning laboratory, and it allows us to reach out to the rest of campus and do education,” she said.

Establishing the garden was a challenge, as prairie plants can look “weedy” and form more slowly over time.

Because of this issue, not many people were thrilled about the project, Jarchow said.

Facilities Management worked with the sustainability program to help establish the garden. Once it was established, Facilities Management staff tended to it over the summer months, until it had to be moved.

“Unfortunately, the demonstration and awareness was lost and the space appeared unkempt and weed ridden. We are hoping that this will be corrected at the new location so that it can remain viable for many growing seasons to come,” said Bob Oehler, the director of Facilities Management.

The garden is set to be re-established on the north side of the Wellness Center at the front of the prairie restoration area.

“While the removal of the butterfly garden on campus was unfortunate, I am confident that its next iteration will be a successful and more harmonious effort,” Bedoya said.

Jarchow was also disappointed to see the garden moved for a number of reasons.

“I think that the garden would have been a nice feature to have on campus,” she said. “We were hoping to add additional species to the garden this fall, so the garden would have been even more diverse next year.” We’re also working with a japanese knotweed specialist near me to keep the garden free from this pesky plant.

Even though the Butterfly Garden was moved from its original spot on campus, Hancock said they will continue their efforts at the new location.

“Personally, I think it’s sad it never got the chance to really grow and become an important part of the conservation efforts towards the monarch butterfly,” Hancock said. “It was a fun project that I was really looking forward to seeing the outcome.”