Bees and Butterflies Pollinating Garden

Wake Up Time! Spring 2025

The UCC Pollinator Garden is waking up after a long winter’s nap.
Glenn and Ian Umphrey have been giving it some attention by pulling weeds and adding filler. A lot of grass started taking over so that has been problem to deal with.


The plants have been waking up after their first year of Sleep. Year two we should see them Creep.


If any plants we bought from the SDSU students last year didn’t survive, they will be replaced free. So I’ll be going back to Snappers Club on Saturday, June 7 to get them.


By the way, anyone can go to Snappers Club that day for educational talks and the native plant sale. It is a lot of fun and very interesting.


Rosalie

Sleep, Creep, and Leap

That’s what the plants in our Bees and Butterflies pollinating garden will do. After getting all the little native plants in the ground in May, they have been sleeping. Not so Glenn Umphrey, who has watered them three mornings a week all summer. Ian Umphrey has weeded and added mulch. When I checked a few weeks ago, I noticed deer had been nibbling on some. That is inevitable. But the plants survived!

Next year we can expect the plants to creep. In 2026 they should leap and be providing blossoms for the bees and butterflies!  That’s what we were told to plan on by the SDSU students who were selling the plants. 

By the way, when we were buying the plants, Glenn told the students that we were buying for our church so we got the plants at 40% off!

I want to thank all of you who donated and helped plant. It was a fun project. And it will be satisfying to watch the pollinating garden grow and thrive, knowing that we are helping the threatened bees and butterflies that are very important to the balance of this wonderful earth God has provided for us to live in. We are all part of God’s plan. 

Blessings on all of Gods creatures. 

Rosalie 

Some of the plants in the Bees and Butterflies Pollinating Garden are starting to flower! Others are slower, as it can take up to three years for some of the plants to fully take effect. See how the Bees and Butterflies Pollinating Garden has progressed in the text and pictures shown below.

Creating an Ellipse

Cindy Merkel and Glenn Umphrey work hard to stake out the location of the new pollinating garden being built at the UCC.

Removing the Sod

Work on the Bees and Butterflies Pollinating Garden continues as Glenn and Ian Umphrey cut and remove the existing sod.

Filling with Soil

Filler soil for the pollinating garden was donated and delivered by Robert Eddy.

Planting the Garden

On June 4, Glenn, Ian and Lorie Umphrey, Cindy Merkel and her neighbor, Christy, and Rosalie Aslesen planted the Bees and Butterflies pollinating garden. They started at 7:00 and finished at 8:30. It went very well with great workers!

Garden at Rest

As Rosalie explained, the garden is now at rest. We can expect it to Creep in 2025, and then Leap in 2026!