Plant and care for the library’s native plant butterfly and pollinator garden! Learn about the importance of native plants and how you can help. Do crafts and participate in citizen science activities, where ordinary citizens/community members help scientists by gathering local data. Help the library raise monarch caterpillars to be released as butterflies at the end of the summer. Adults, teens, and children are welcome, but children aged 8 and younger must be accompanied by a responsible adult at all times. Please register.
This program will take place in the gardens outside the library in the back, with parts of the program happening indoors as needed. The dates/times below are tentative and may change due to weather or other factors.
Thursday, June 27th from 11:00-12:30pm ~ Plant the garden at the library and make a biodegradable seed starter to take home to add native plants to your own garden.
Thursday, July 11th from 10:30am-12:30pm ~ Weed and water the butterfly garden, search for monarch caterpillars for the library to raise, and count pollinators for science. Then make a clothespin butterfly craft.
Friday, August 2nd from 11:00am-12:00pm ~ Butterfly talk and release with butterfly scientist Victor DeMasi. Powerpoint presentation in the meeting room with great facts for kids and adults about the life cycle and ecological niche of a variety of butterfly species. At the end, if available/weather permitting, kids can see butterflies up close from the speaker’s yard and release them into the library’s butterfly gardens outside.
Monday, August 12th from 1:00-1:30pm ~ Butterfly release! Release a monarch butterfly raised by the library from our very own garden. Learn about tagging and sampling butterflies for science. This will be a very short program, but folks are welcome to stay after and help tend the garden.
Thursday, August 15th from 10:30am-12:00pm ~ Weed and water the butterfly garden, search for monarch caterpillars for the library to raise, and count pollinators for science. Then make a bug hotel craft.
Late August-Early October, To Be Determined ~ Butterfly releases. Release monarch butterflies that were raised in the library over the summer. Learn to tag them for scientists at Monarch Watch and borrow one of the library’s tagging kits so you can tag butterflies at home for monarch scientists to study. These programs depend upon the whims of Mother Nature, so we will announce a day or two before a release when they are happening, based on when butterflies eclose (emerge from their chrysalises) and the weather forecast. You will be notified via email if you are registered for Butterfly Gardening Club when these releases occur.
All ages welcome at these events, but children aged 8 and younger must be accompanied by a responsible adult at all times.