children's - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T10:31:56Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/children%27sSecret Gardens: Small space is big on butterflieshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/secret-gardens-small-space-is-big-on-butterflies2017-03-01T14:50:31.000Z2017-03-01T14:50:31.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960704698,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="500" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960704698,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960704698?profile=original" /></a><em>Christine Johnson (left) shows a visiting family the Children’s Museum butterfly garden,</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>including a 2-foot-wide kinetic sculpture metal butterfly.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></p>
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<p style="text-align:left;"><strong>By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"> The next time you are near the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum & Learning Center in Boynton Beach, take a few minutes to explore its butterfly garden.<br /> Set on a pie-shaped piece of land at the southeast corner of the building, this garden is filled not only with color and fragrance, but also butterflies. Lots of butterflies. <br /> “When we took out pencil and paper to design this garden, we knew we wanted it to be both pretty and functional,” says Christine Johnson, a member of the Boynton Beach Garden Club who helped create the museum’s garden.<br /> Today she is working with five other club members to ready the garden for an art festival that should draw a good number of people to the area. “We want our butterfly garden to look its best,” she says.<br /> It was the city that got the garden club involved. When Johnson first came to the site in 2013, there were only a few round paving stones, an irrigation system and five small trees. “Otherwise it was just dirt,” she says.<br /> Today the garden is a perfect example of what you can grow and achieve in a small space. And like any well-designed butterfly garden, this plot includes the specific plant species necessary to support each variety of butterfly throughout its life cycle. <br /> These include plants that the butterflies need to lay their eggs as well as leaves for their caterpillars to eat. And then, after those caterpillars form pupae (chrysalises) and turn into graceful butterflies, the garden provides the appropriate nectar plants to nourish them.<br /> Today you can walk through the museum garden on a paver path past the sweet almond tree. Its fragrant white blooms attract dozens of Atala butterflies to sip their nectar. <br /> These black insects with metallic blue polka dots and a splash of orange on their wings are considered rare. But here you’ll find plenty of them.<br /> Nearby the milkweed plants silently signal to the orange and black monarch butterflies that they will find sustenance here. <br /> And a fennel plant sends up its feathery fronds in the hopes of attracting black swallowtail butterflies. The club members plan to plant parsley that, like fennel, will attract these black butterflies with blue, orange and yellow markings on their wings.<br /> “Isn’t nature marvelous?” asks Johnson.<br /> There’s plenty here for butterflies to snack on, including the yellow flowers that look like pats of butter on the popcorn cassia. Ask how this plant got its name and Johnson will tell you to rub your hands along its leaves. Take a whiff and you’ll smell the toasted aroma of, yes, popcorn.<br /> There’s always something new being planted. In fact, today Johnson was on her way to the garden when she found 10 red and pink pentas that a neighbor had set at the curb as refuse. She gathered them up, brought them along and the club members have planted them bordering the well-mulched path. <br /> “We don’t have a big budget for our garden, so this was a wonderful find,” says Johnson, who also regularly checks the nursery sale racks at big box stores.<br /> Other plants are donated by club members who raise them from seeds. The women enjoy working together to make this garden welcoming to children and nature.<br /> “When visitors come by, they often compliment us on the garden, and that makes the work so much more pleasurable,” says Johnson.<strong><br /> <br /></strong><em>Master Gardener Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley can be reached at debhartz@att.net.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960705456,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="500" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960705456,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960705456?profile=original" /></a>An adult Atala is about the size of your fingertip.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br /><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;" class="font-size-4">Gardening Tip</span> <br /> If you want to attract Atala butterflies to your garden, plant native coontie, which is the host plant for their colorful caterpillars. But not just one coontie; you have to plant a bunch of them. That’s because the Atala won’t lay eggs if there’s not enough coontie around to feed their caterpillars as they develop into butterflies. <br /><br /><em>— Christine Johnson</em></p>
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<p style="text-align:left;"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;" class="font-size-4"><strong>If You Go</strong></span><br /><br /> The Butterfly Garden is at the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum & Learning Center, 129 E. Ocean Ave., Boynton Beach; 742-6780; <a href="http://www.schoolhousemuseum.org">www.schoolhousemuseum.org</a><br /> The garden, brought to you by the Boynton Beach Garden Club, is on the southeast corner of the museum building to the right of the front stairs.<br /> For more information about the Boynton Beach Garden Club, call Second Vice President for Membership Christine Johnson at 736-2909. The club meets at 1 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of each month at the Boynton Beach Women’s Club, 1010 S. Federal Highway. The public is welcome.<em><br /><br /></em></p></div>Secret Gardens: Children’s Garden dream taking shape in Delrayhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/secret-gardens-children-s-garden-dream-taking-shape-in-delray2015-09-30T15:07:48.000Z2015-09-30T15:07:48.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960591291,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="400" class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960591291,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="7960591291?profile=original" /></a><em>Garden team leader Shelly Zacks hands a pruning saw to Arie Forma.</em></p>
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<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960591890,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960591890,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="239" alt="7960591890?profile=original" /></a><em>A bolting basil plant.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960592253,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960592253,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="239" alt="7960592253?profile=original" /></a></em><em>Salo Bowen carries some wood for stakes.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960592266,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960592266,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="239" alt="7960592266?profile=original" /></a></em><em>A vining sweet potato already is in bloom.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960592473,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="400" class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960592473,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="7960592473?profile=original" /></a><em>Jeanne Fernsworth lays cardboard to be covered with mulch.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></p>
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<p style="text-align:left;"><strong>By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley</strong></p>
<p> Where today you see a pile of mulch, Shelly Zacks envisions Mulch Mountain covered with climbing kids. That nearby hole in the ground will one day be an enclosed habitat for water plants and fish. And the raised beds overflowing with sweet potato vines will be tamed and planted with a variety of vegetables including collards, kale and peppers.<br /> Welcome to the Delray Beach Children’s Garden that, as you can see, is a work in progress.<br /> Zacks, the garden team leader and a preschool teacher herself, always dreamed of creating a “place where children are immersed in nature, love it, not want to leave it and tell their parents they want to come back.” <br /> Her dream began to take shape in early 2014 when St. Paul’s Episcopal Church offered a half-acre of land for $10 a year. The same day she signed the lease for the use of the land, the project was awarded a $5,000 county grant.<br /> “Everyone involved agreed that this children’s garden should be designed and created by the children themselves,” says Zacks, who believes many young people suffer what’s been called “nature deficit disorder.” <br /> To do this, the steering committee hosted a design brainstorming session to which they invited local parents, landscape designers, city officials and educators who were tasked with building model gardens from pipe cleaners, clay and other craft materials. Then a “surprise panel of judges” comprised of a dozen youngsters ages 7 to 17 critiqued their work.<br /> “They were so verbal and so critical. They had wonderful ideas,” says Zacks.<br /> A landscape designer took the winning ideas and put together a plan that’s being brought to fruition by volunteers who have been working at the garden on Saturday mornings since February. <br /> “None of the work is being contracted,” says Zacks, who praises the community for its generous donations of time, money and materials.<br /> Using a permaculture technique, the grass has been covered with cardboard and mulch that will help create a first layer of soil as it decomposes. <br /> The plot has been cleared of invasive Brazilian pepper trees so now you can see there are four towering turpentine mangos destined to shade a triangular sandbox.<br /> They’ve planted a chocolate tree, lemon bay and cinnamon tree. And they can’t wait until the loquat, jaboticaba and longan bear fruit and the stemmadenia tree blossoms with its fragrant white flowers. <br /> There’s even a peanut butter plant whose red fruit tastes something like, well, peanut butter. Nearby blackberries grow and muscadine grapes will be planted so the children can enjoy a very natural PB&J.<br /> Cotton and henna plants are just the beginning of a craft garden. Echinacea, aloe, ginger and chamomile form the backbone of a medicinal plot.<br /> A small square of sunflowers is destined to grow into “walls” and be topped with morning glory vines that will form a “roof” for the garden’s Sunflower House.<br /> A stand of thriving banana trees forms a banana forest where children can hide and seek. And an Eagle Scout troop has built above-ground planters arranged as a labyrinth. It’s these that currently are overgrown with sweet potato vines. The garden is slated to open to the public Nov. 9 when there will be a Harvest Festival. By then these raised beds will be neatly planted, weeded and ready for harvest.<br /> “It will be so much fun for the kids to pluck food from the ground like buried treasure,” says Zacks, who, of course, will be there celebrating, too.</p>
<p><br /> <em>Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley is a certified master gardener who can be reached at debhartz@att.net when she’s not in her garden.</em></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">IF YOU GO</span></strong></span><em><br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960592058,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960592058,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="262" alt="7960592058?profile=original" /></a>Delray Beach Children’s Garden, 137 S.W. Second Ave., Delray Beach; 716-8342;</em></p>
<p><em><span style="color:#000000;"><a href="http://www.delraybeach"><span style="color:#000000;">www.delraybeach</span></a></span>childrensgarden.org <br /> <br /> The west side of the garden has a pedestrian entrance with street parking. There is a parking lot on the east side of the garden off First Avenue. Volunteers are needed 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. Just show up with your water, hat, gloves and sunscreen.<br /> A Harvest Festival, the official garden opening, will be 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nov. 9. Enjoy vegetable harvesting, pumpkin decorating, scarecrow building, storytelling, music, food and more. The first annual fundraising Delray Beach Children’s Garden Golf Tournament will be held at Delray Municipal Golf Course in December.</em></p></div>