BETHEL — It’s Monday afternoon and 14 volunteers are digging out weeds and grass and turning over soil to expand a pollinator garden at Valentine Farm, a Mahoosuc Land Trust property at 162 North Road.

In charge is former master gardener instructor Barbara Murphy of West Paris.

Murphy’s plan is to better attract butterflies, but also create specific spaces for native bees and birds. They will educate their human guests, too.

“The heavy pollinator part of the garden will stay as is,” Murphy said. But more elements will get added to the mix.

The fence has been restaked and the garden space has nearly doubled.

At the entrance to the garden the information area will be upgraded, she said.

Near the center of the enlarged space they will build a butterfly house with butterflies at all stages of their life cycle: from caterpillars to chrysalis to butterflies, which will be released.

The 10- by 10-foot or 10- by 12-foot structure will have double doors to keep out wasps. Last year, a parasitic wasp laid eggs on the caterpillars.

Educational signs will line another path with displays that teach about bees, both solitary and bumblebees.

“Where (native bees) nest, how their gardens interact, how their landscapes interact with our native landscapes” will be on display in the hollow stumps that the line the paths in the educational area and throughout the garden, Murphy said.

In another spot, volunteers will dig a muddy shallow pond for wildlife.

“We want insects, amphibians and birds!” Murphy said. The pond will be a private sanctuary surrounded by lots of taller grasses and on one side will be a “blind,” like a shutter with slats, to look through.

Leaving the pond, visitors will step along a path and through an arbor.

“This area will be our discovery, creativity and skills area based on Anna and Oliver, two 12-year-old fictitious kids who are great explorers and will challenge us to learn our skills and discover,” Murphy said.

A nearby open space will be for meeting and building skills. Seating is yet too be determined and could be as informal as yoga mats.

Finally, in the far corner of the enlarged space will be a vegetable and fruit garden with a raised bed of strawberries. Staff will demonstrate growing techniques.

Other shrubs like blueberries and arborvitaes will line the fence wall along with multiple species of other shrubs, too.

“It will have fruit and it will be dense because we want birds to find refuge in there. This area will be somewhat focused on birds,” she said.

Murphy and her husband, Mike Murphy, grow about half the plants in hoop houses at their West Paris home. He did all the designing.

In 2018, they started the pollinator garden at Valentine Farm as an 8- by 10-foot strip of land and “it got so hot we gave up,” she said.

“Throughout the garden there will be sanctuary posts and chairs and tables tucked away,” she said. “We all need quiet. We might have a little fountain, birdsong, a place to find ourselves again. Purpose can be finding time for you or can be doing something for the environment. We’ll have both here.

“Whether we get it all done this year or it rolls into next year we don’t know,” she said.

Of the several volunteers on hands and knees chatting about après gardening and garden sleepovers, Murphy said, “All of these folks are critical. Some are new, others have been here since day one.”

Murphy welcomes all to come dig in the dirt or get involved in another way on Mondays and Fridays from 3 to 5 p.m.

 

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