On July 23, we finished the first planting of the pollinator garden. Native plants were installed that will provide places to lay eggs and nectar for monarch’s and other pollinators. To install the garden we first pulled weeds, then racked back the existing mulch, then dug the holes for each plant, watered them, planted milkweed and wildflower seeds and added compost and finally replaced the mulch. St Pauls has a compost bin in the Courtyard so we put the weeds we pulled into the compost bin.
Below, you can see a before and after photos:
Monarch Larva Monitoring Project
We are one of the dots on the national monitoring map.
St Paul’s is officially part of the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project (MLMP) which involves volunteers from across North America and New Zealand in monarch research. It was developed in 1997 by researchers at the University of Minnesota to collect long-term data on larval monarch populations and milkweed habitat.
The project focuses on monarch distribution and abundance during the breeding season.
St Pauls would like to grow our monitoring team and you can also monitoring milkweed in your own garden. For more information and to sign up for monitoring training sign up on the list in the Northax or email tagindy@aol.com