Hemingway Butterfly Garden: Mariposas del Mundo

Volunteer Leader(s):

Kat Calhoun

Neighborhood: Fair Haven Heights/Quinnipiac Meadows

Type of Site: Vacant Lot

Address: Hemingway St & Eastern St, New Haven, CT, 06513

Intern(s):

Annli Nakayama (2023)

Hanwen Zhang (2022)

Chris DeFiore (2021)

Thomas Martin (2020)

Gabe LePage (2020)

Photo Gallery

2022 Greenspace Report

The swaths of agastache and wild phlox you see might belie the Hemingway Butterfly Garden’s origins as a vacant lot. Now entering its fourth year as a Greenspace site, the butterfly garden is quickly establishing itself as a pollinator hotspot and a stunning natural oasis. Its volunteer team worked throughout this season to maintain and expand the existing space. They spent first half of the summer with maintenance work, weeding flowerbeds and clearing knotweed along the creek bank before diversifying the site’s selection of wildflowers with new perennials and shrubbery.

2022 Accomplishments

7 shrubs planted (3 ruby spice clethras, 2 summer sweet clethras, 2 pussy willows, 1 inkberry)
15 perennials planted (5 agastache, 3 phlox, 5 butterfly milkweed, 2 moss flowering phlox)
8 events
20 volunteers
116 volunteer hours

Greenspace Log

08/04/2023

Finishing up the work from last week, we laid log slabs along the edges of the garden beds to better outline the paths. We also spread more woodchips around the picnic tables to better define the boundary between the table area and the grass. We weeded and watered as usual, and tried our best to take photos of the flighty monarch butterflies. Kat taught us that swamp milkweed flowers smell like vanilla — no wonder the monarchs here are especially fond of it!

Maintenance

07/28/2023

Stone dust round 2! We spread one more 1/2 cubic yard of stone dust on the paths, this time focusing on the very long path along the south side of the garden parallel to the creek. We raked out the stone dust, careful to keep to the edges of the garden bed, which will soon (hopefully) be defined by log slivers. We weeded and watered as usual, and admired the butterflies that have started to spend more and more time among the beautiful flowers of the garden. Fingers crossed we will see eggs and caterpillars soon!

Maintenance

07/21/2023

Stone dust round 1! We hauled & spread 1/2 cubic yard of stone dust along the main internal paths of the garden. Thanks to the dedication of the volunteers last week, most of the paths were clear of larger weeds. We weeded a bit as we spread the stone dust. We did not have enough stone dust to cover the long path parallel to the creek and a few of the shorter branching paths toward the west side of the garden, so we will pick up on our stone dust journey next week! For the last hour or so, we cut back the knotweed and did some light watering. Onward!

Maintenance

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