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Project Bloom of

Central Square, NY

Butterfly Garden

Written 5-26-2004: About a year ago Project Bloom of Central Square and the Lakeview Service Unit of Girl Scouts from this area teamed up to create a Butterfly garden.  An invitation was sent out to Girl Scouts to submit a design for a butterfly garden to be put in Goettel Park.  About half a dozen designs were submitted.  The winning design, which is the shape of a butterfly, was submitted by local cadette Girl Scout Kayleigh Stevens of troop 318 in Central Square. 

  As a cadette Girl Scout the highest award you can earn is the Silver Award.  It is symbolic of accomplishments in Girl Scouting and community activities, as they grow and work to better their life and the lives of others.  When designing the garden, Kayleigh had to do research on which plants butterflies like and how to lay them out by size etc. 

  The next step was the ground work.  Two members from Project Bloom went down to Goettel Park last fall and sprayed roundup on a large circular piece of ground so it would be ready this spring.  Then at the Girl Scout clean up Day on May 16, girls and parents from local troops hauled topsoil and turned over the ground to get it workable.  Also the outline of the butterfly was drawn out with paint on the ground.  The outline was created using actual Girl Scouts standing in the shape of a butterfly. 

  On May 21, came the most challenging part of the garden, edging.  After all of the rain we had the previous week  it was not easy to see the outline.  Once the edging was in place the volunteers inserted labels where all  of the plants were going to go.  The following people helped to accomplish this part of the garden in about 2 /2 hours; Kayleigh, Nicolas, Benjamin and Heather Stevens, Darlene and Glenn Chidsey, Ashley Kiskadden and Aileen Hartmann.

  Next came the fun part, planting the garden!  Kayleigh and Heather Stevens, Darlene and Curtis Chidsey, Samantha and Paula Salisbury and Angela and Vi Gugliotto spent about 2 ½ hours setting the plants in their spots, rearranging when necessary and then planting the garden.  Also that day two post were put in the ground for butterfly houses and markers were laid out for the stepping stones.

   On Monday, May 24, between storms, Kayleigh and Heather Stevens finished putting in some plants and put up the butterfly houses.  The butterfly houses in the garden were donated and made by local Brownie Girl Scout Courtney Snyder and her grandfather John McNamara.

   The garden is now almost complete.  A bench will be put in front of the garden by the village.  The stepping stones will be designed by Kayleigh and placed in the garden hopefully within the next week and Project Bloom will be placing a plaque at the garden.     

   The hope is that the butterfly garden will bring beauty to Goettel Park and provide a pleasant place for all to visit.  It was a successful project carried out by the cooperation of many giving volunteers in our community so that all can enjoy it.