Action Projects

Garden

• GARDENING FOR BUTTERFLIES
• BUILDING A SCHOOL COMPOST PILE

GARDENING FOR BUTTERFLIES

Submitted by:
AQUATIC OUTREACH INSTITUTE
1327 S. 46TH STREET #155
RICHMOND, CA 94804
SHANNAH ANDERSON
510/231-5704

Correlation to CA State Content Standards for Science:
Grades 9-12
Biology #6
Earth Science #9
Investigation and Experimentation #1

Correlation to CA State Content Standards for Social Studies:
Grades 10-12
#10.13.4
#11.10.2
#12.14.5

IS THIS AN IMPORTANT PROJECT TO DO?

The beauty of butterflies and their amazing change from caterpillar to winged adult are amazing visions to see in your local park, garden, or schoolyard. But these delicate insects are more than just garden decorations - they pollinate plants and are an important food source for a wide variety of animals. Loss of habitat and the use of pesticides has reduced butterfly populations. Four species of butterflies unique to the Bay Area are already extinct, and seven others are endangered. Growing native plants that provide food for both butterflies and caterpillars can help reduce the impact of shrinking natural habitat areas, have a positive impact on butterfly populations, create a home for many beneficial insects, and help protect local ecosystems and biodiversity. As the flowers bloom, look for ways they attract pollinators, how the pollinators interact with flowers, and the changes that occur in a flower once it has been pollinated. Your butterfly garden will also provide you with a source of flowers to preserve for study and to use for craft projects.

WHAT IS A SIMPLE PROJECT OR PROJECTS WE CAN DO?

1. Choose a site for the butterfly garden. A sunny spot protected from wind is best. Butterflies need shelter from the wind to feed and fly, and they need sunlight to orient themselves and warm their wings for flight. Most butterflies are active between 10 A.M. and 3 P.M., so you need to choose a site that is sunny during these hours. The best location will have full sun for most of the day and should border a tree line so that butterflies can take shelter if predators are near.

2. Choose a container or a site in the garden. If you can't plant directly into the ground, a barrel, window box, or clay pot will work well and will be easy to take care of. Your container should be a minimum of 12 inches deep with holes in the bottom for drainage. Set wooden containers up on bricks to allow for drainage and air space. (If vandalism is a problem, you can set the container on a platform with wheels and roll it into a protected area at night.)

3. To prepare your container for planting, use a sterile potting mix that is light. This will eliminate most problems with weeds and soilborne disease. Moisten the soil with water, then fill a container with the moistened soil to within an inch or two of the rim. If you are using a wooden container, you can soak it with water before you fill it with soil. This will keep it from forming an air space between the soil and the container where water is pulled away from plant roots. If you are planting into the garden, prepare the bed by weeding, double-digging (or loosening soil), and amending the bed with compost.

4. Use the Suggested Plant List at the end of this activity to choose plants for your garden.

Planning the Garden

• The first step is to learn which butterflies are local so that you will be able to choose appropriate plants for your garden. Find a popular butterfly plant to sit near (like a buddleia) and, with the help of a field guide, observe and record the types of butterflies you see. You might also call a naturalist working with the East Bay Regional Parks or a local college entomology department for advice on butterflies that live in your area.
• You can plant your seeds directly in the container or start them inside in flats and then transplant them when they have two to three sets of true leaves. To start a garden quickly, you can purchase seedlings or larger plants at a nursery.
• Flowers that attract butterflies are fragrant, rich in nectar, and large enough for the butterfly to land on. Butterflies particularly love yellow, pink, orange, and purple flowers and prefer tubular or flat, upright blossoms. Many of the nectar plants that attract butterflies are in the sunflower family.
• Butterflies prefer closely planted, messy, untidy gardens, so combine different sizes of flowers and don't trim them back too much. A mass of colorful, fragrant flowers is more likely to attract butterflies than single plantings of flowers.
• Plan for a succession of bloom, so that during each season there are flowers providing a constant source of nectar. Here in the Bay Area you should have nearly year-round butterfly visitors.
• The most successful butterfly gardens include plants which provide for the needs of butterflies during all four stages of their life cycle: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and adult. In planning your garden you need to choose plants that provide food for the butterfly caterpillars (larvae) as well as the adults. These larval food plants, or host plants, will encourage the butterflies to lay eggs in your garden. Some butterfly species will lay eggs on only one species of plant, while others may use several different host plants. Choose larval food plants that are native to your area.
• Butterflies need water in a garden. In butterfly gardens you will often see "puddle clubs"—groups of butterflies drinking from wet soil for both water and mineral salts. A patch of mud that you keep wet all year-round is best, but you can also fill a saucer or pot with wet sand and sink it into the soil near your flowers.
• Butterflies are solar powered—they need to warm their wings and raise their body temperature so that they are able to fly and remain active. Include some flat stones in a sunny area of your garden to provide a place for butterflies to bask.
• Avoid using herbicides and pesticides in your garden! These chemicals are not specific to annoying insects, and they will kill butterflies and other beneficial insects as well.
• Some butterflies like to feed on the fluids in rotting fruits and sap. You might want to cut up some fruit, like watermelon, and put the chunks of fruit on stakes in your garden.

Caring for the Garden

• To care for your garden, check the soil each day for dryness, especially if you have planted in a container. Make sure you check below the surface of the soil to see if the water is getting to the roots of the plants.
• Water lightly early in the day when needed. If your plants are confined to a container, you will need to feed them as well. Mix in a good amount of compost.
• You can extend the bloom time of your flowers by keeping dead flower buds picked off. You might want to let some flowers go to seed so that you can study the changes in the flower, see how the seeds are dispersed, and collect some seeds for next year's garden.

Butterfly Garden—Suggested Plant List

Here is a list of some common Bay Area butterflies and some of the plants they prefer for both nectar and larval food. Native plants are marked with an asterisk (*).

WHERE CAN WE GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS TOPIC?

Aquatic Outreach Institute
1327 South 46th Street #155
Richmond, CA, 94801
(510) 231-5704

Butterfly Gardeners Association
1021 North Main Street
Allentown, PA 18104
(610) 432-4878

Butterfly Gardeners Quarterly
P.O. Box 30931
Seattle, WA 98103

Butterfly Encounters
P.O. Box 604
Danville, CA 94526-0604
(925) 820-4307

Butterfly World
Marine World Africa USA
Marine World Parkway
Vallejo, CA, 95489
(707) 644-4000

Insect Lore
P.O. Box 1535
Shafter, CA, 93263
(800) Live-Bug

Lepidopterists' Society
1900 John Street
Manhattan Beach, CA, 90266

Monarch Program
(800) 60-Monarch
Produces a newsletter (12 issues/year for $25).

North American Butterfly Association
909 Birch Street
Barabo, WI 53913

San Francisco Zoological Society Insect Zoo
45th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard
San Francisco, CA 94116
(415) 753-7053

The Xerces Society
4828 SE Hawthorne Boulevard
Portland, OR, 97215
(503) 232-6639
Produces a newsletter (2 issues/year, $3 per sample copy). Membership fee is $25/year.

Y.E.S. (Young Entomologists' Society)
1915 Peggy Place
Lansing, MI, 48910

BUILDING A SCHOOL COMPOST PILE

AQUATIC OUTREACH INSTITUTE
1327 S. 46TH STREET #155
RICHMOND, CA 94804
SHANNAH ANDERSON
510/231-5704

IS THIS AN IMPORTANT PROJECT TO DO?

All of the plants in the garden need nutrients and minerals to grow and remain strong and healthy. Chemical fertilizers can provide some of the major nutrients plants need, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, but they do not provide many of the minerals and other nutrients contained in organic material which has been broken down by microorganisms in the soil. Chemical fertilizers are expensive and do not provide food for the organisms living in the soil which are essential to the health of plants. In addition, chemical fertilizers can be washed into our storm drain system by rain or overwatering where they can cause an algae bloom. This algae can block the sunlight needed by aquatic plants. In addition, as the algae dies and decomposes, it uses up the oxygen in the water, suffocating aquatic animals.

Organic gardeners use compost to fertilize garden beds. Composting is a natural process through which organic materials decompose and are recycled into a rich soil amendment called humus. Building a compost pile is a perfect way to recycle yard wastes like leaves and grass clippings as well as cafeteria wastes like fruit and vegetable scraps, reducing the waste that your school produces every day. Finished compost can improve the health of your garden soil in many ways: it helps to break up hard soils, it holds moisture, and it adds essential nutrients for plant growth.

WHAT IS A SIMPLE PROJECT OR PROJECTS WE CAN DO?

Building a Compost Pile

Ingredients

• There are four basic ingredients you will need to build and maintain a compost pile: brown plant materials, green plant materials, water, and air.* Brown materials or carbon-rich organics. Brown materials are woody, dry plant materials like sawdust, dry leaves, and straw. Carbon provides decomposers with the energy they need to live.
• Green materials or nitrogen-rich organics. These are wet, green materials like grass clippings, fresh garden cuttings, and kitchen scraps. Nitrogen provides decomposers with the protein they need to build their bodies.
• Water. The compost pile needs to be kept moist, but not wet. Some people describe it as "as wet as a wrung out sponge." The aerobic bacteria that break down the organic material like damp conditions, but not wet ones. Too much water will displace the oxygen and cause a smelly, anaerobic compost pile.
• Air. Turning the compost pile helps to speed up the rate of decomposition and provides necessary oxygen to decomposers.

Do Not Use:

• diseased plant material or invasive weeds
• dairy or meat products
• greasy foods
• cat litter or dog manure

Compost Size/Structure

Compost can be built in a mound right in the garden, or you can contain it in a bin. There are many commercial bins available, or you can build your own. If you plan to compost food scraps, you might want to consider a rodent-proof design with a floor and a tight-fitting lid. If you build the compost in a loose pile, it should be at least 4 feet by 4 feet in size. Choose a site that is near a source of water and close to the garden so it will be easy to move and use the finished compost.

A Recipe for Building the Compost Pile

1. Chop up materials: It is important to cut or chop up large woody materials so that they break down faster and there is more surface area for decomposers to feed on. Materials should be no more than 6 inches in length.

2. Layer the pile: As you build your pile, you want to combine both brown and green materials. There are many suggested "recipes" for this combination, but you can simply use a 50:50 ratio. You can mix the materials together, or you can alternate layers as you go.

• If you want to speed up the decomposition process, you can add garden soil as an "activator." Since the garden soil is already full of the microorganisms that break down organic material, it will give your compost pile a head start on the process.
• If you are not using a compost bin, loosen the soil where you will be building the compost pile with a spading fork. Add a layer of brown materials, then a layer of green materials and then a thin layer of garden soil. Continue layering until your pile is about three feet high. Spray each layer of the pile with water from a hose to keep the pile damp. Finish the pile with a layer of browns or cover the top with soil. You can also cover the pile with a tarp to keep the moisture in and to keep rain out.

3. Aerate the pile: It is important to keep fluffing and stirring the layers with a pitchfork as you build the pile to make sure there is plenty of air in the pile. You can let your compost pile sit without turning it, but to speed up the process, use a pitchfork or spading fork to turn the pile up to three times a week. As you mix and turn the pile, try to keep it in a rectangular shape—a cone or pyramid shape will allow heat, moisture, and nitrogen to escape.

4. Maintain the pile: Turn the pile up to three times a week to aerate the materials. Check the moisture level and add water when necessary.

Temperature
As microorganisms digest organic materials, they give off heat. This heat helps to speed up the decomposition process. Use thermometers to measure and track changes in temperature. Compost piles can reach temperatures of 160 degrees Fahrenheit! Don't worry if your pile doesn't get hot, though. Cold compost piles work too, they just take a little longer.

Using Finished Compost

You will know your compost is ready when you have a dark, nutrient-rich humus. You should easily be able to tell when the pile has finished decomposin— it will be dark brown and crumbly like soil, it will have an earthy odor, and you won't be able to easily recognize the materials that added to the mixture. If you have been turning the compost pile often, you may have compost in as little as three to four weeks. If you build a pile and let it sit undisturbed it will probably take about two to four months to decompose.

You can use this finished compost in several ways:

• Soil Amendments: Spread the finished compost over the garden bed and dig it in.
• Mulch: Put a thin layer of compost on top of the garden soil around existing plants.
• Potting Mix: Mix up equal parts of compost and soil or sand and use for seedlings or potted plants.
• Compost Tea: Fill a burlap sack with compost and soak it in a barrel of water for a couple of days. Use the brown, nutrient rich water to water your plants.
• Seed Flats: Mix finished compost with sand and peat moss for starting seeds.

Compost Troubleshooting Guide

WHERE CAN WE GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS TOPIC?

• Aquatic Outreach Institute
  1327 South 46th Street #155
  Richmond, CA, 94801, (510) 231-5704.
• Alameda County Waste Management Authority and Source Reduction and Recycling Board
  777 Davis Street #200
  San Leandro, CA 94577
  (510) 614-1699
• California Integrated Waste Management Board
  8800 Cal Center Drive
  Sacramento, CA, 95826
• California Statewide Recycling/Composting Hotline
  (800) 553-2962
• Compost Resource Page
• Cornell Composting Page
• Composting in the Schools/Environmental Defense Fund
• Davis Street Station for Material Recycling and Transfer (SMaRT)
  2615 Davis Street, 94577,
  (510) 638-2303
• Heather Farms Garden Center
  1540 Marchbanks Road
  Walnut Creek, CA 94598
• University of California Cooperative Extension
  1700 Oak Park Boulevard
  Pleasant Hill, CA 94523
  (925) 646-6540