Buttonwood Garden Talk: How to Create a Butterfly Garden

FREE Presentation

Buttonwood Nature Center Garden Talks will be held from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the Civil War era garden adjacent to Monterey Pass Battlefield Museum. Programs are held rain or shine.

How to Create a Butterfly Garden

Presenter Laurie Collins is a highly experienced Expert Gardener, based in Franklin County.

She is an expert on pollinators, specifically specializing in Monarch butterflies. She frequently teaches the public about basic life cycles, design principles for butterfly gardens, and how to rear butterflies.

About the garden:

Created in partnership with the Friends of the Battle of Monterey Pass, the garden was based on extensive research and was planted by The Institute’s (now Buttonwood Nature Center’s) garden director and volunteers. It will be an educational tool for visitors of all ages to Monterey Pass Battlefield Museum.

“The garden is an interpretation of a Civil War-era garden, not a literal reproduction,” said Rowland, Buttonwood Nature Center’s educational site coordinator and the garden director. “In addition to traditional vegetables, 19th-century gardens often included a variety of herbs, used for both medicinal and culinary purposes.”

The garden will have a significant number of such herbs. Many of these were used historically as “backyard medicine” by households, and were also used by surgeons and doctors tending to wounded Civil War soldiers.

“For example, lamb’s ear was used on wounds,” Rowland said, “and lemon balm was used to relieve headaches.”

The 25-by-28-foot garden is enclosed by a period style wooden fence, constructed with reproduction 19th-century-style nails.

With six raised beds and one 24-foot-long bed, the plantings will change from year to year, always with an eye to reflecting period gardens. This year, veggies like rhubarb and onions have been planted with the herbs.

A corps of Buttonwood garden volunteers and Blue Ridge Garden Club members work with our staff to maintain the garden throughout the season.
Participants should wear shoes appropriate for being inside the garden.
Seating is provided, but feel free to bring your own chair if you prefer.

The program is presented in partnership with Friends of Monterey Pass Battlefield.

Additional program support is from our Today’s Horizon Fund contributors:  The Nora Roberts Foundation; the late Alma W. Oyer; Mary Marshall Buckey in memory of her parents, the late George and Marty Buckey; Marge Kiersz; Don Gibe and Nancy Erlanson; APX Enclosures; and the family of the late Carolyn Terry Eddy, with daughters Connie Fleagle & Kim Larkin.

Created by Buttonwood Nature Center in partnership with Friends of the Monterey Pass Battlefield, the garden project was made possible through financial support by the M&T Charitable Foundation and Younger Toyota, and in-kind support by GRC General Contractor, Inc.