After attending my first Monarch Teacher Network workshop, I went back to school the
following September very enthusiastic about getting the whole school involved in the project.
I quickly realized that the most important and easiest way to involve the other staff was to
get them on board to start a butterfly garden. I did a presentation from the workshop at the
September workshop and from there I had my committee consisting of 2/3 of the staff willing
to work on a garden. I was fortunate to have a very supportive administrator, Roger Legrande,
who did a great deal of the heavy work in getting materials and building the garden. Our primary focus
was to involve every child in the school. Creating ownership proved very effective in creating and
maintaining respect for the garden.

The first step was to create a list of tasks and find volunteers committed to complete them with as
much involvement from the students as possible. The initial task list was as follows:

~~~ decide on location of garden ~~~ soil ~~~ mulch ~~~ puddle container ~~~ large flat stones ~~~ summer care of garden ~~~

~~~ purchasing lumber and Raised Bed construction ~~~ purchasing materials for and designing plant signs with children ~~~

~~~ coordinating the ordering and purchasing of plants, seeds and potting soil and distributing them to all interested teachers ~~~

~~~ contacting Home Depot re: possible financial support ~~~ organizing the layout of the garden and communicating this to staff ~~~

~~~ coordinating the preparing and planting the garden and communicating this to staff ~~~ purchasing and or borrowing tools ~~~

~~~ song (ask music teacher if she will teach it to all grades and to make a tape for Nursery and Kindergarten) ~~~

~~~ obtaining donated plants ~~~ Sustainable Development Grant ~~~ Winnipeg in Bloom application ~~~ follow up on Bee presentation ~~~

The cost of our original garden was approximately $1000. The lumber cost about $400,
and the soil was about $300. We did a raised bed garden so as not to have to apply for special permits.
The plants cost about $300, and initially people just brought their own tools. The following year we added
more plants (about $300), an inground watering system (about $300) and we purchased tools, gardening gloves, etc.,
which cost approximately $200. We then added a bench which joined two additional smaller raised beds just for milkweed.
This cost approximately $300 for lumber and $200 for soil. The labour was all donated by staff and parents,
and they involved the children as much as possible. We mulched with cedar chips which cost about $75.

To obtain extra funding, a written proposal was submitted to the Winnipeg School Division's
Gifted and Talented Committee. To view that proposal, click here.

If you would like to discuss a project, or need further information, please contact Jean Tinling at: tinpin@shaw.ca

(click here to view enlarged pictures of our garden)

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