Monarch Migration

It's incredibly difficult to predict nature, which is perhaps most obvious in our weather forecasts.  Yet we continue to try, and in these efforts, learn vast amounts of amazing information about what we are tracking.  Take, for example, the migration of the Monarch butterfly.

Just this week, while the southern states are being deluged with hurricane winds and rain, here at Headwaters Park it has begun the funny mix of the end of summer and beginning of fall.  The nights and mornings are cool and dew-coated, but the days become hot and more like our summer memories.  This week we have noticed an upswing in our butterfly activity. 

Our Park houses four main habitats; forest, stream, wetland, and meadow.  This time of year, I truly enjoy the meadow habitat.  It's is so active and loud, with swaths of color creating new rainbows in every direction.  Monarchs are on their way and we were able to capture images of a beautiful one on its way to its winter home.

A few basic facts about Monarchs:

• Each year, the monarch population goes through 4-5 generations.
• The migrating generation are not quite at the adult stage when they leave.  
• When monarchs do reproduce, they will only lay their eggs on milkweed.
• Monarchs can tolerate being in the rain to a point, but if their wings become too saturated, they become unable to fly.
• The wings are covered in what are called scales.  Although they are not like reptile scales, Monarch scales are relatively hardy.
• Monarchs use their sense of smell and sight to learn about their environment, find food, and stay safe.
• Monarchs drink nectar from flowers with their proboscis, which is like very long tongue.

For more detailed information about Monarchs, check out the Journey North website at:

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/search/Monarch.html 

 

 

Pop quiz:  Can you tell if our Monarch visitor is a male or female?  See our next blog entry for the answer!

3-Sisters Garden

3-Sisters Garden

During the creation of our Community Learning Garden this past year, we decided one of our goals was to provide many options for growing a garden as possible.  We wanted to explore sizes of gardens, types of raised beds, and experiment with what seemed to grow best in each area.  One garden that was particularly intruiguing was the 3-sisters garden. 

This garden partnership was utilized by several Native American groups to highlight the strong suits of a few plants, and to use these strengths to heighten the yield of their crops.  We couldn't wait to try it!  The three plants in the garden include corn, pole beans, and squash.  These three crops, planted with proper placement, rely on each other for healthy growth.

• Corn is used by the beans as a support for their growth.
• The beans fix nitrogen to their roots, packing away nutrients for the following year's growth.  The beans also serve to help the corn stay secured in the soil during rain and wind events.
• The squash (it could be zucchini, summer squash, gourds, or pumpkins) both block out sunlight to the soil, inhibiting the growth of weeds, and also helping to maintain moisture in the soil by slowing evaporation through shade.

Students are building the 4 x 4 bed the 3-sisters garden will be planted in this year.  The sides are hollow molded plastic, purchased from www.goodideasinc.com, and can be filled with water.  The water gradually seeps into the soil through the cloverleaf hoses underneath the plants, encouraging roots to grow out in search of a water source.  The hoses also provide water slowly so as not to have it absorbed into the earth or runoff the sides of the garden.

This photo is the 3-sisters garden after a few weeks of growth.  The corn is place in the center of each side, the pumpkins in the corners, and the beans in the middle.  We planted the corn first, to give it time to grow and be a solid support for the beans.  We wait a few weeks to plant the pumpkins so they would not shade out the corn and beans. 

This photo is from about 6 weeks of growth.  Since this photo, the corn has tassled, which means it should produce ears.  The jack-be-little pumpkins we planted have already produced two pumpkins with the promise of many more.

This photo shows the pole beans crawling right up the vine.

There are numerous flowers throughout the vines.  We hope to be harvesting them

in the next few weeks!

There are numerous flowers on each of the pumpkin vines.  Although we have had some weed growth, I have probably pulled less than 10 since the plant was able to shade with its large leaves.  The loose, damper soil made it easier to pull, too.





Happy Growth!