Butterfly Garden

In July 2012, as part of its 10^th anniversary celebration, the Clayton State Retirees Association decided to establish a butterfly garden on campus. The goal of this project was to create a lasting legacy to be enjoyed by Clayton State retirees, faculty, staff, and students for decades to come. In order for this project to be successful, we solicited the support of two important groups: the Master Gardeners among our retirees (Helen Brown, Sandy Golden, and Carol Hatfield (our President’s wife) and Clayton State Facilities Management. We contacted Harun Biswas, and he generously offered the services of the Landscape Management Department to help us with this project.

A few weeks later, a small group of our retirees met with Justin Brooks, a Certified Arborist and the Assistant Landscape Management Director to select a location for the garden. Based on Justin’s recommendation, this beautiful sunny, lakeside strip was selected. After considerable research, the planning committee decided to include a variety of host and nectar plants that attract butterflies at all stages of development. In addition to native perennials and annuals, Gene Hatfield, our CSRA President, suggested that we pay particular attention to choosing the hardscape elements for the garden. We decided to incorporate the wooden bench (which was coincidentally donated to the University by Benita Moore, one of our retirees). We also decided to add a solar-powered natural stone fountain, a copper-capped red cedar trellis, and two landscape boulders.

In late September 2012, after the Landscape Management Department prepared the soil, we planted most of the perennials. In April 2013, we added some annuals to the garden, which we plan to do every spring. Based on Helen Brown’s advice, we decided to place markers identifying each plant in the garden. Sandy Golden faithfully assumed the responsibility of ensuring that the plants were properly labeled, including both the common and botanical names.

The garden we see today is a result of the collaboration between the retirees and the Landscape Management Department. Since its inception, a faithful committee of retiree volunteers has regularly maintained the garden by weeding, trimming, planting, and adding or replacing hardscape embellishments as needed. Over the years, we have added a pergola (constructed by Ed Wicker), replaced the garden bench, added a hand-crafted butterfly house (constructed by Jim Braun), built a flagstone walkway (assisted by the Landscape Management Department), replaced the solar-powered fountain with a concrete bird bath, and approved the addition of a portable library to be installed adjacent to the garden. The CSRA is grateful for the hard-working members of the butterfly garden committee.  Current members include Dolores Cox, Pat Keane, John Keane, Jill Sears, Richard Sears, Martha Wicker (chair), and Ed Wicker. Previous retiree volunteers include Helen Brown, Florence Cunningham, Gene Hatfield, Carol Hatfield, Sandy Golden, Bob Golden, Pat Perry, Cindy Lauer, Joan McElroy, and Joyce Swofford.

GIS Mapping for the Butterfly Garden

The dots on the map below represent the plants in the CSRA butterfly garden, and the color of the dot corresponds to the plant’s bloom color. To learn more about a plant, click on one of the dots. A small pop-up window will appear, which displays the plant’s location, common name, scientific name, bloom time and color, height, spread, and date planted. There will also be a link to a photo of each plant.