Three educators who understand the potential educational opportunities that arise when Monarchs, schoolyard gardens and students are put together:  Dr. Charles Watson, Jennifer Clements and Principal Chris Grey. 

Perhaps its true that what we think about we see more of, as lately I’ve been getting a heavy dose of seemingly serendipitous connections to Monarchs and Monarch-loving people. 

For example, just last Saturday (December 12, 2015) Beth Dattomo, Mayor Athas’ brilliant assistant, stopped over in the afternoon to review the possibility of submitting a proposal for grant money for a schoolyard garden.  It so happens the proposal must be submitted to the University of Minnesota Monarch Lab by 11:59 PM tonight (Tuesday Dec. 15).

Then, shortly after Beth left on Saturday, Charlie, who was fossil hunting near Gainesville, Texas called me to excitedly report that he saw a Monarch butterfly. Imagine that!  December 12 in North Texas and Monarch is sighted.

I have written the proposal for the schoolyard Monarch Garden at Watson.  At the moment it is being reviewed by Jennifer Clements, a teacher at Watson Technology Center here in Garland, Texas who will be the team leader for this project.  Jennifer is also collecting the necessary signatures and will send them to me this evening.  Fortunately the proposal can be submitted electronically tonight to the University of Minnesota Monarch Lab.

Greenhouse at Watson Technology Center, Garland, Texas—Getting ready for a whole lot of Milkweed and a great Monarch Habitat--in fact, two of them!

At 11 AM today I drove over to Watson Technology Center to deliver the draft of the proposal to Jennifer.  It just so happened that the principal of the school was chatting in the hall with Dr. Charles “Matt” Watson who is a Professor of Biology at Midwestern State University.  Dr. Watson’s son attends Watson.  Dr. Watson is helping one of his doctoral students in setting up an experiment with growing milkweed in part of the garden area of the school near where their lovely greenhouse is located.  At the moment I don’t know the details of this study but I hope to learn more regarding what they are measuring.

Dr. Charles M. Watson is an integrative evolutionary biologist with interest and training in physiology, biogeography, biodiversity, conservation, and evolutionary ecology. His current projects integrate field ecology, physiological laboratory trials, and GIS technology to answer broad-scale evolutionary and ecological questions.

Principal Grey is a leader who obviously can not only collaborate effectively with people from various walks of life and absorb new ideas quickly, he is also a person who does not lose sight of his responsibility to look out for students.  I was very impressed that he could chat with us and still be able to see a small girl running down the hall and gently stop her and caution for her safety to not run in the hall.

And Monarch Mania continues with a Monarch Webinar featuring our Mayor Athas as one of the speakers.

From 3 to 4 PM this afternoon, I attended an informative webinar on the topic of Monarchs that was hosted by Patrick Fitzgerald, Senior Director of Community Wildlife, National Wildlife Federation.  Our Mayor Athas was one of the featured speakers along with Lajuan Tucker from Austin Texas and Catherine Werner from St. Louis.  Mayor Athas pointed out that the state of Texas is solidly behind Monarch and pollinator awareness.  He is right and you can expect a lot of good programs to be coming out of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation to support the Monarch—our state insect.  Many statewide organizations are joining hands to assist in bringing back the Monarch population.

Why Pollinators?

Pollinators—from bees to butterflies—are a critical link in our food chain.: Although some plant species rely on wind or water to transfer pollen from one flower to the next, the vast majority (almost 90%) of all plant species need the help of animals for this task. There are approximately 200,000 different species of animals around the world that act as pollinators. Of these, about 1,000 are vertebrates, such as birds, bats, and small mammals, and the rest are invertebrates, including flies, beetles, butterflies, moths, and bees. [SOURCE:  Natural Resources Conservation Service, Wildlife Habitat Management Institute – Native Pollinators -

http://plants.usda.gov/pollinators/Native_Pollinators.pdf - accessed 9/29/2015]

Why Schoolyard gardens?

Schoolyard gardens are a natural classroom for students of all ages—from 5 to 105.  The garden offers infinite possibilities for learning.  A garden is like a river. It is constantly changing.  Heraclitus once said that one could never step into the same river twice—a profound statement that is nonetheless true for a garden.  Formats for lessons in the garden are not limited to botany, science and agriculture.  The garden can teach lessons in all phases of human endeavor—from ethics to ecology, from math to art.  Gardens have an important role to play in the education of our children and I'm glad that my community recognizes their importance to our children.

December 5, 2015 - Garland Community Garden - Monthly Work Day 

Once a month members of Loving Garland Green gather in force to work in the Garland Community Garden.  Yesterday we combined our monthly workday with our pecan sale drive for a fun and successful day.  Even though the garden is winding down for the winter, it is still producing and that is the word we would like to get out to Garland residents. Just Friday we were were able to deliver twenty one-gallon bags to the Good Samaritans of Garland.  Currently, over November and December alone we have delivered 98 one-gallon bags of greens. In Garland, even in the winter you can grow edibles--most notably are winter greens such as kale, mustard and turnip greens.  In addition, broccoli and Brussels sprouts also thrive in our area.  Growing your own greens can save you and your family up to a $1,000 a year.  Furthermore, you don't need a large lot for growing them.  You can garden in containers from a patio or deck.

In addition to pulling out stalks of finished plants such as okra and tomatoes, we converted one of our large beds to a hugelkulter.  To do this we dug out a center trench in the log bed, installed rotting logs, and then recovered with the already rich garden soil from the bed.  Normally we don't disturb the soil of our beds with digging, but we made an exception in this instance and consider this remedial work.  We plan to do the same in many of the beds over the winter.  One of the best things that a gardener can to to help conserve water is to engineer beds so that damp rotting logs are at the bottom of the bed with organic matter and then garden soil on top of that.  Depending on the size of the rotting logs, they will furnish water and other nutrients to plants growing in the bed for several years with little or no water.

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December 6, 2015--The Christmas Monarch - Found December 5 in the Garland Community Garden

While we were cleaning out one of the flower beds, a Loving Garland Green member discovered a healthy-looking Monarch Caterpillar. It appeared to be trying to obtain nourishment from a dead leaf.  December 5 and a Monarch caterpillar?  There are no healthy milkweed left in the Garland Community Garden.  I took the caterpillar home where I have milkweed growing inside--waiting for a home somewhere in a greenhouse for the winter.  I'm calling it "The Christmas Monarch" because it should eclose 3 to 4 days after the 25th of December.  The caterpillar has a Monarch Condo all to itself.  He is now busy doing the healthy caterpillar thing:  eating and defecating.

December 6, 2015 - Garland Texas --Monarch Condo with Four Pupas in the sun.

As for the other four monarch pupas, they are reaching the outer limits of time allotted for being a monarch pupa.  I will admit that I'm a little concerned but I haven't given up hope.  Saturday, December 5 marked their 14th day. Some references say this time can last up to 21 days.  They have all moved from their lovely green color to the dark stage which indicates they are just about ready to eclose.