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Home & Garden readers might also want to read Keep it Green, a gardening column by Michael Womack.

Saturday, October 6, 2001
Garden of learning
Petronila students' nature knowledge comes from tending to butterfly garden
By Leanne Libby
Caller-Times

Paul Iverson/Caller-Times

Nathan Swinney (from left) an AmeriCorps volunteer, shows students Jesse Firo, 11, Javi Torres, 11, and Eliseo Duran, 11, how to transplant from a plastic pot to the butterfly garden at Petronila Elementary School.

At Petronila Elementary School, it's cool to be a gardener. Even the boys dig it.
   Roberto Lopez, 10, said his fifth-grade class helps out in the school's butterfly garden once a week, and often donate their recess time to volunteer.
   "It's fun," Roberto said. "We pull weeds. You have to get them out at the root."
   "I like planting, digging holes and just coming out here to look at butterflies," added his classmate, Arturo Alaniz, 11.
   The garden, which was the brainchild of three AmeriCorps volunteers, was opened in a dedication ceremony in August. The park was dedicated to Nancy Douglass, who taught fifth grade at the school until her death in a car accident in February, and to herfifth-grade class.
   While it was started by adults, the fifth-graders who tend it now have a growing sense of ownership.
   Garden know-how

Paul Iverson/Caller-Times

A monarch butterfly caterpillar in the Petronila Elementary School butterfly garden. AmeriCorps volunteer Nathan Swinney said caterpillars in the garden will soon build chrysalis shells that will house them while they transform into butterflies.

   The students, who probably moan and groan about doing chores at home, were downright giddy about gardening tasks. There is plenty of giggling as Ana Gonzalez's fifth-grade class scampered from one plant bed to another in the butterfly-shaped garden that is designed to attract butterflies. Roberto remembered the first time he and Arturo saw a chrysalis, the hard-shelled home that shelters a caterpillar while it turns into a butterfly.
   "I thought it was mold or something, so I asked what it was," Arturo said.
   The children usually take such questions to AmeriCorps volunteers Nathan Swinney, Cindy Straub or Stephanie Kneis. Gonzalez keeps up the best she can, but, frankly, the kids are starting to outpace her nature knowledge.
   "They can identify the different butterflies and find the ladybugs better than I can," she said.
   Fifth-grade leaders
   The children started getting involved with the project in fourth grade, with the plan of taking charge in their fifth-grade year. While they only spend part of one day a week the garden, Gonzalez said her students certainly don't forget about it the rest of the week.

Paul Iverson/Caller-Times

A monarch butterfly rests on a bush near the butterfly garden at Petronila Elementary School. The students decided what kinds of butterflies they would like to see in the garden, and AmeriCorps volunteers helped them select plants that attract those species.

   "They are really concerned about what it looks like," she said. "We had a lattice fall over in a storm, and they were in here saying, 'You know, we have to fix it.'"
   When Gonzalez broached the idea of using recess time for working in the garden, she thought the kids would balk.
   "They always like to come out and see what's different," she said. "This is one thing they would like to do all day if they could."
   Jesse Firo runs up to Gonzalez, his hands cupped together.
   "Mrs. Gonzalez, I got you a present," the fifth-grader said breathlessly. "It's a ladybug."
   She gently tells him to let the creature go. He obeys, but sounds skeptical about her decision.
   "You should have kept it in a jar," he said.
   Making an idea fly

Paul Iverson/Caller-Times

Erica Herrera (left) and Christine Marines view the Petronila Elementary School butterfly garden, which was the brainchild of three AmeriCorps volunteers. The garden was dedicated in memory of Nancy Douglass, who taught fifth grade at Petronila Elementary School.

   The butterfly wings, which hold the main plant beds, include cosmos plants with bright orange blossoms, milkweed and passion vines. A small brush pile provides a safe haven for butterflies on windy days.
   On a recent Friday morning, Swinney helped the children plant dill, parsley and fennel.
   "These are highly fragrant herbs that attract many species of butterflies," he said.
   Swinney is senior member of AmeriCorps, the domestic version of the Peace Corps. In exchange for volunteering 1,700 hours a year, he receives money to put toward his college education.
   Swinney, 23, and his two partners wrote a grant proposal and received $650 to build the butterfly garden. They started work in January, creating a giant grid using stakes to make sure the final product came out in the shape of a butterfly. Nine tons of sandy loam later, they were ready to plant. Children volunteered to come by the school during their summer vacation and move the dirt.
   All the garden's plants are native to the area, and were chosen with xeriscape in mind. The team added free mulch from the landfill and a timed watering system.
   Swinney, who said he hardly knew a thing about gardening and butterflies before he began the project, now rattles off plant and wildlife names like an old-time horticulturist. He has seen ladybugs, caterpillars, crickets, dragonflies and bees here, he said.
   Something for everyone
   Standing in the garden in the mid-morning sun, Swinney points out a pair of mating dragonflies. He pulls back a plant stem to reveal monarch butterfly caterpillars with stark black and yellow markings. Another stem holds vibrant green, orange and black caterpillars that will become black swallowtail butterflies. Swinney expects them to form a chrysalis in a few weeks and emerge as butterflies two to five weeks later.
   When the project began, the children looked at pictures of butterflies and chose ones they wanted to try to attract to the garden. Swinney and his team helped them order plants that generally attract those species.
   Swinney has been surprised by the children's dedication to the garden. He points to the carefully weeded flowerbeds.
   "One week from now, if no one picked weeds, this would be covered in weeds," he said. "Some of the kids come up and do this with their parents. And, families who can't afford to garden at home can come up here."
   The students agree it's a place worth frequenting.
   "Before, there was nothing but sticks out here," Roberto said. "It's free to anybody."
   And when it comes to gardening skills, Roberto is clearly thinking about his future.
   "It's good in case your wife doesn't know how to plant things," he said.


Contact Leanne Libby at 886-3615 or libbyl@caller.com

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