Art With Mrs. Andress

The Butterfly Garden Outdoor Classroom has been recognized as an official National Wildlife Habitat. Our garden is planted with native plants, most of which are host plants for caterpillars and butterflies. Our focus is on plants and beneficial insects. Our garden has a recycling waterfall, a dry creek bed that provides rockpiles for shelter, a natural, un-manicured environment that butterflies prefer, and nesting boxes for birds, butterflies, ladybugs and garden spiders. The Garden Club works hard to keep the garden weed free and planted with flowers and plants that are interesting during all four seasons.

The garden has an interesting history. The original courtyard consisted of four trees surrounded by large river rock placed on top of clay soil and construction debris. The trees quickly outgrew the space and were removed. Over the years several attempts were made to create a viable growing space but none were successful. In 2000 our school held a fundraiser to refurbish the garden. Our efforts were matched by the PTO and a professional landscaper donated his time to help us realize the dream of a beautiful garden.

In 2008 we received a grant from the N. Kneal Dockstader Foundation to purchase tables with benches, umbrellas, storage units, tools, plants, visuals and other educational tools with the goal of creating an outdoor classroom.

June 1, 2011 the Garden club received another grant from the Dockstader Foundation for improovements to our garden. Our goals were to make our garden as "green" as possible. We began to compost most of our garden waste, planted 80 native plants that require less water and experimented with verticle growing towers that increase garden yield using a very small footprint. We also purchased two big self-watering planter boxes that were placed at the entrance to Nottingham School. The garden club plants and tends these planters.

.GARDEN CLUB WILL BEGIN IN EARLY SEPTEMBER ! We will be meeting from 3:30-5:00 through OCTOBER. Listen for more details in August on Nottingham News.

We are seeking donations of spring flowering bulbs- daffodils, tulips, crocus etc.
Please consider picking up a bag of bulbs for us when you visit your garden center this fall!