Tompkins Weekly

Community works to support Emery Butterfly Garden


Michelle Menter, volunteer at the Emery Butterfly Garden in Newfield, stands among the plants at the garden. Photo by Deidra Cross.

In 2018, the Emery Butterfly Garden, named after Herb and Florence Emery, was established. Nestled in front of the school in the hamlet of Newfield is a beautiful little garden featuring raised flower beds surrounded by a quaint white fence that provides an outdoor educational play area and multi-age classroom.

Newfield Notes by Deidra Cross

Michelle Menter, former chair of the Healthy Living Committee and current Butterfly Garden volunteer, lovingly tends to the plants in the garden that houses the nymphalids.

“A garden is always a garden,” Menter said. “It holds its own and just does its thing. We’ve got the pollinator part nailed now and have milkweed growing, which was hard to come by this year. The milkweed is important because that’s the only thing the caterpillar eats.”

As Menter explained, the monarch butterfly has four stages — egg, larva, pupa and adult butterfly. An adult butterfly lays eggs on milkweed. The eggs then hatch to form a caterpillar, or larva, that eats the milkweed on which it lives.

In two weeks, the larva reaches full growth and attaches to some place like a leaf or stem by discharging silk. Then, it undergoes the process of metamorphosis to transform into a pupa or chrysalis. For about 10 days, a continuous process of metamorphosis transforms the pupa into the beautiful parts of the future adult butterfly. The adult butterfly will emerge and fly away in search of a mate and food.

The garden was established in 2008 by Growing Hope Together, an organization that provides gardening education for third graders in Newfield and was revived in 2018 by Menter, Diane Tripodi, Andrew Battles, Philip Linde, school board members, student volunteers, the Healthy Living Committee and the Newfield Garden Club.

“Herb Emery had already passed away by the time the garden was started,” Menter said. “His wife, Florence, who was a long-time librarian at the elementary school, wanted to dedicate it to him by adding their name.”

The beloved garden has received communitywide support in the form of volunteers as well as donations. The Plantsmen Nursery provided donations of the native pollinator plants, the late Tom Brown of Locust Lumber Company donated the raised beds, and Cayuga Compost donated compost. Most recently, the beautiful white picket fence surrounding the garden was donated by the Newfield Beautification Committee and was installed by Rob Doner.

The garden was initially established to support the life-cycles curriculum of the first- and third-grade classes, who grow and release butterflies each year. It is working to become certified as a Monarch Waystation. The plants grown support habitat for monarchs, tiger swallowtails and more.

“The students, the Garden Club and community volunteers come here to plant and play,” Menter said. “We recently had a gathering of our Nature Investigators Club. It’s a name we came up with for expeditions in the garden where kids come out and investigate what’s going on in the garden. We identify bugs and plants and discuss the findings. We play in the garden while we learn. It’s nice to have this area that serves as an outdoor multi-age classroom as well as a place for the children to explore and get fresh air and sunshine.”

The garden is another opportunity to let kids learn and explore the benefits of agriculture that coincides with other events and programs geared toward nature offered by the Healthy Living Committee. The committee serves students and staff by coordinating nutrition education and hands-on gardening experiences.

“The Healthy Living Committee presents many different ways that kids can learn about health, agriculture and explore ways to introduce healthy living practices to their lives,” Menter said. “We participate in the Big Apple Crunch. Every fall, schools and colleges all over New York take a bite into an apple at the same time. It’s literally millions of people participating. Littletree Orchards of Newfield and Indian Creek Farm in Ithaca donate the apples. We tell jokes, exchange pictures and media with other students in other schools who participate in the event, and it’s a lot of fun.”

Growing Hope Together has provided a grant that will soon see educational signage as well as an Emery Memorial plaque to honor the beloved Newfield residents the garden is named after. These will be installed at the garden, located at 247 Main St.

“We were happy to learn that there was grant money left over from other things that was waiting to be used,” Menter said. “We are excited to get the signage and markers, and it should be coming this fall. We are pleased with how the garden is coming along and happy that it can still provide a place for playing and learning in an outdoor, open environment.”

Newfield Notes appears every Wednesday in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@VizellaMedia.com.

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