Butterfly Garden Project 2022

 

Community is everything

We love the legacy that the Karen Woolf Butterfly Garden at Bessie Buker Elementary School brings to students and teachers. So when a client asked us to step up and volunteer some time and love, we said yes! We are now moving full steam ahead to revitalize this beautiful garden. Our friends, Iron Tree Service and Wolf Hill Garden Center, have been ideal partners in this work, taking care of the trees and new plantings, while we focus on the landscape design and hardscaping. We have also been working in collaboration with the lovely Friends of Buker, the non-profit parent-organization for the school, who have been super supportive of the effort.

Read about the full Garden Plan here.

How you can Help

*Attend our Volunteer Clean-Up Day this coming Labor Day weekend! September 4th 8:00AM - 11:00 AM.

After a truly successful four-hour session on Saturday, June 11th, we still have a ways to go to make the garden ready for the new plants coming this Fall. This upcoming September session will need all hands on deck! Volunteers are invited to bring your garden tools to help redefine old flower beds, weed the beds and get them ready for the new plantings.

*If you are a parent of the school, consider joining the Friends of Buker’s Garden Committee. This committee isn’t in existence yet but it can be once we identify willing parents who are excited about committing some time to keep the garden monitored and maintained throughout the year after we’re done with the heavy lifting.

*Purchase a plant for us to plant this Fall. Ashley’s new design is filled with native species that pollinators will love. Wolf Hill has generously discounted the cost of these plants for us and we are getting them at cost! You can either go directly to Wolf Hill and ask their desk about the TM Landscaping registry, or you can donate money that will go towards the list of plants Ashley’s created for the project, right here. Either way, you are awesome!

 

Who was Karen Woolf?

Dr. Karen Woolf was a nurturer. She taught students in kindergarten through fourth grade for 32 years and she loved to be with nature. To honor her legacy, her love for nature and her deep passion for teaching, volunteers dedicated a small patch of land at the southwest corner of the school property and created a butterfly garden in 2004/5. This Butterfly Garden was officially designated as designed to host native plants and shrubs that pollinators and butterflies could feed from and lay their eggs on. Since the Garden’s inception, there have been many volunteers and volunteer efforts to maintain the garden. Teachers have used the property to incorporate lessons involving nature and some classes have used the space to gather for lessons on the paved brick patio. 

As is the case with anything, time has invited wear and tear to the Garden, and it is again time for the community to step in to help keep this garden alive and flourishing. 

If you have any questions about this community project, or if you knew Dr. Karen Woolf personally and would like to be a part of this project, please email or call us today!