By William Smith
When the butterfly pollinator garden in Middletown was planted nearly 20 years ago, it was designed to be an asset to the community.
This was no ordinary butterfly garden. It was big enough to be mistaken for a small town park. Master Gardener volunteers spent two years planting varieties that attract butterflies.
“The town of Middletown formed a committee to decide what to do with all the land. And Vera Anderson, she was a master gardener. She came up with the idea of a butterfly garden,” said Master Gardener volunteer Frances Jackson.
The garden was beautiful, and Anderson was its primary caretaker for years. But her health worsened to the point that she could no longer care for it.
Last year, Jackson and some of her fellow Master Gardeners took on rehabilitating the butterfly garden as a new project. The city of Middletown is partnering with the organization and is anxious to see the overgrown garden project and the beauty it once had.
But it’s going to take a while. Jackson described the rehabilitation as a five-year project. She didn’t even know it existed until last year.
She said many other people aren’t aware of the garden’s existence either.
“It’s a hidden gem,” she said.
Jackson admits the state of the overgrowth was intimidating the first time she saw the garden. She’s done plenty of weeding in her gardening life. But never this much in a single project.
“We’ve really hit it hard this year,” she said.
Jackson and a dedicated group of Master Gardeners — usually around a dozen or less — work on the garden from 8:30 a.m. to about 10:30 or 11 a.m. every Monday morning. The rehabilitation requires the expertise of the Master Gardeners, but everyone is welcome to come help pull weeds during that time.
“We’ve put in well over 100 hours into the garden since March,” Jackson said.
Sidewalks wind through the garden, forming the shape of a giant butterfly. To speed up the weeding process, Jackson and her volunteers have placed a black tarp over invasive grass, hoping to kill it off to allow for planting. If that works, the tarp will be moved to another butterfly garden section.
“It’s just too big of an area to hand weed,” Jackson said.
Jackson said the garden is also a Monarch butterfly way station and was delighted to see cocoons on the milkweeds this Monday.
She stressed that the garden won’t just be a public resting place. They hope to use it as an educational experience.
“My hope, being a former Girl Scout leader, is that we can eventually get Girl Scouts out here, earning patches,” Jackson said.
