Monarch Garden Birthday Party
- Julie Maxey-Allison | 10th Street
It has been a good first year for the Monarch Butterfly Demonstration Garden. Designed by the Garden Club’s Gale Darling, the collaborative effort between the Del Mar Garden Club and the Del Mar Foundation is blossoming at the north end of the Del Mar Civic Center plaza. The garden includes native narrowleaf milkweed plants, vital to the Monarchs, along with native nectar plants. Monarchs lay their eggs on the milkweed that provides food for their hatched caterpillars. The caterpillars grow on to perform their miraculous metamorphosis, first into chrysalises who then proceed to emerge as beautiful Monarch butterflies.
To learn how to start a butterfly friendly garden, scan the informational sign at the site or go to the DMF Monarch webpage: delmarfoundation.org/monarchs. Scores of Monarch caterpillars ate their way through the many narrowleaf milkweed plants at the Garden last August. Invite them to your garden by adding narrowleaf milkweed (as plants or seeds), which local nurseries including Armstrong’s and Neel’s Nursery try to keep in stock.