New butterfly garden takes off

FARMINGTON — Farmington Garden Club is hoping to attract some new colorful visitors to Creekside Park.

Members of the club planted a butterfly garden last week down the hill from the pavilion at Creekside Park on Broyles Street. Two members in particular, City Council member Diane Bryant and Jill Toering, organized the project.

Bryant said she “threw out” the idea of a butterfly garden to the club because she had been reading about them.

“We need more pollinators around, not just monarchs, but all pollinators,” Bryant said. “They help society.”

Butterfly gardens are pretty and natural and it’s a chance to “get back to nature,” she added.

Kitty Sanders, a butterfly expert with Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks in Fayetteville, helped the club locate a spot for the garden earlier in the spring. The city’s public works department built the garden frame and filled it with soil for planting.

Botanical Gardens donated 15 plants to the club that would help to attract butterflies. Some of the plants in the new garden include milkweed, ironweed, Blazing Star, Culver’s Root, Shining Blue Star and Short Tooth Mountain Mint.

Larry Anglea of Farmington built the obelisk for the butterfly garden and it stands as a focal point in the middle of the plot. The Garden Club will take on the responsibility of watering and maintaining the garden.

Bryant said club members still want to add other items to the garden, including mulch, ground cover and some flower plants to give it more color.

(Courtesy Photo) Members of Farmington Garden Club, wearing masks because of the covic-19 pandemic, stand back to look at their new butterfly garden at Creekside Park.