Gardens take care of plants, pollinators and people...

I find time and time again that gardens and gardeners are great (and love) at bringing nature and people together. 

My latest example is a partnership between the West Coast & East Coast: Collier County Garden Program & Coconut Creek Community Garden. 

I first found out about Coconut Creek from one of our volunteers. When I connected with their program I knew right away we could help each other, and they invited me to give a presentation, about our Gardens, to their gardeners (a rotating group of young people completing school service hours). 

Just a few days after Hurricane Ian, the group reached out to see how we and our gardens were doing and asked how they could help.

On Saturday 12/10/22, Lisa & I drove over to the Coconut Creek Community Garden to pick up plants from their garden. We had a chance to meet with the young people in the garden as they worked on weeding, watering, and adding fresh soil.

                Lisa & I quickly joined in the search for butterflies & caterpillars. 

We gave a short presentation about the effects of the hurricane on our gardens and left them a Snow Squarestem plant and some seeds. Link to Coconut Creek Community Garden

We picked up 15 plants for use at Sugden & Conner Butterfly Gardens. Thank you to Dan Godston (Program Lead) and ALL the youth that have participated in the program. It is inspiring to see your group in action and building something for your community and helping our community too!!

Above & Beyond Service to your community

 

Conner Park, 492 Bluebill Drive, Naples, FL. 34108

Photo Taken 08.31.2022

  

Photos taken after Hurricane Ian

Conner Park is a passive park in Collier County, spanning 5 acres of walking trails and Beach Parking.  In Late 2021 a group of dedicated volunteers working hand in hand with our maintenance staff installed a butterfly garden.  This garden team is primarily made up of residents from the neighboring community of The Dunes.

After Hurricane Ian in September of 2022, the storm surge came up through Turkey Bay and inland for several blocks completely covering this once beautiful park.  The park suffered from the saltwater and the loads of debris that washed in with the surge leaving household items and horticultural debris throughout the park, parking lots and roads. 

Our dedicated volunteers wasted no time responding to the garden to assess.  Within two weeks after Hurricane Ian the team was on site, cleaning up the debris out of the garden and making a plan for future plantings to restore the garden to it's former glory and provide for it's many pollinators.  Two hours of hard labor intensive work and hauling debris to a pile for pickup was a major accomplishment.

That is not where this story ends.  One volunteer remained on site for another three hours, working alone filling more than 5 large bags of debris, from the grounds surrounding the garden.  Dante, a dedicated garden volunteer and resident of the neighboring condominium association managed this massive task by himself.   Dante, is another real life superhero residing in our town taking care of our environment, our pollinators, doing what needed to be done before anyone else could get to it.  Thank you Dante for your passion for this park, our community, your neighborhood and the hundred people who visit that park each day.  (Even when a hurricane just went through.) 

https://www.collierparks.com/collier_park/conner-park-beach/ 

North Collier Regional Park Butterfly Garden

The beauty of people and nature is that we are resilient. In a world that gets rocked the way IAN rolled in, it can be soothing to watch nature return.

When we take care of Nature, we are building a future for everything, people, plants and pollinators, a place for quiet reflection, serenity and beauty.

While I was tending to my own garden after the Hurricane, I was saddened that I lost one of the favorite host plants for Sulphur butterflies, and at the same time over joyed that the Monarchs were back and laying eggs on the milkweed. Now I’m not sure I’ll have enough milkweed but that’s always a good problem to solve.

While the Collier County Gardens are healing themselves with a little help from our gardeners and friends, please know that we are thinking about you and hope you’ll visit soon.

‌Gardening is what happens when two creative energies meet—human creativity and nature’s creativity. ~~Sue Stuart Smith::A Well Garden Mind

Bring on the Butterflies - Florida Wildflower Foundation Webinar

 

Bring on the butterflies! - Florida Wildflower Foundation

Register here - FREE:

Butterflies are an important indicator of the health of our environment. Equally as important are the native plants on which they and other wildlife depend for survival. Learn how you can make a difference for butterflies, big or small, by simply providing native plants in your own landscape, balcony or patio garden. Learn how chemical-free gardening simplified by planting native plants the right way can make your thumb green!

Join a Butterfly Count - North Collier Regional Park

 Saturday - November 19th

9:30am - 12:30pm

North Collier Regional Park

Meet in the Garden 

Nearly 30 species of butterflies have been observed during previous counts. Both number of individuals and different species will be recorded.

Volunteers ages 16 and up are invited to participate. Individuals with previous experience participating in one of these butterfly counts will serve as group leads.

Click here to sign up

Sugden Regional Park August 31, 2022

 Sugden Regional Park 

I just had to share, what for me is, an exciting milestone. At Sugden Butterfly Garden we planted a Wild Lime Tree over a year ago in the hopes of attracting Giant Swallowtails. Almost every time any of us are at the garden we check this tree looking for activity…2 weeks ago we were rewarded with caterpillars and eggs. Yesterday after much searching I found chrysalis. I doubt we can time seeing the butterfly emerge - so the butterfly picture is a stock photo.

 

And here is a cool video of a butterfly playground…because of all the rain this low spot has not been mowed and it is now a beautiful spot to enjoy butterflies. There had to be at least 20+ flyers.

 

Content Shared by Connie Nagele,

 Lead for Collier County Parks and Recreation's Volunteer Garden Program. 

Perfect Plants for Pollinators UF/IFAS

 This is a great article by our Partner UF/IFAS extension office in Collier County. 

Use this link to read the entire article for more about Herbs, Shrubs and Trees.