Hundreds of plants ready to be planted at Adelaide Monarch Garden

Volunteers from the non-profit organization, Urban Greenscapes, are looking for some help on June 12, 13 and 14 to put over 300 new plants in the ground to start the Adelaide Monarch Garden.

The garden is located on Adelaide Street near Boulevard Lake

CBC News ·
After removing the big patch of grass and overgrown trees on the empty lot, volunteers had to spread wood chips around the perimeter of the garden. (Urban Greenscapes / Facebook)

A monarch butterfly garden project located on an empty lot on Adelaide Street in Thunder Bay, Ont., is slowly coming together, but organizers from Urban Greenscapes are in need of some help from June 12 to 14 to help plant hundreds of swamp milkweed plants and New England asters to start the garden.

Officially known as the Adelaide Monarch Garden project, organizers said they approached the city in March to pitch an idea about creating a monarch butterfly and pollinator garden.

The new garden is located near Boulevard lake at the south end of Adelaide Street, adjacent to the recreational trail. (Urban Greenscapes / Facebook)

"We got the final, official permission in March," co-ordinator Dan Fulton said on the CBC Thunder Bay program Superior Morning. He added that organizers have only been working on the site for about a month, as they had to wait for the last bit of snow to melt before they started preparations for a garden.

Preparing the soil for gardening

"It's called the back to Eden method ... [and it's] the fastest way to recover a big area like [this]," Fulton explained. 

After removing all the overgrown trees on the empty lot, Fulton said volunteers needed to make sure the ground was ready for plotting.

"You start with a foot of wood chips for your garden beds ... and the wood chips will break down in about a year or so to six inches [and] they turn into this huge, wonderful organic mass that holds moisture, bugs ... and it smothers any invasive plants at the same time."

He said with the help of volunteers and generous residents in the city, the perimeter of the garden is ready to be plotted with some beautiful flowers and plants.

Fulton said they have about 350 plants ready to be planted. He is hoping volunteers will come lend a hand on June 12, 13 and 14 to start the garden off by planting the hundreds of new plants around the perimeter. (Urban Greenscapes / Facebook)

"I have 350 plants ready to go in right now — 280 swamp milkweed and 70 New England asters — [and] by the middle of July I'll have 800 plants .... so it's going to be a good start," Fulton said.

But in order to make this happen, Fulton and the volunteer group at Urban Greenscapes are looking for more help.

"I've had good volunteers [and] we've prepped the plants and re-potted them," Fulton said, "so next [week] we are looking for anybody to come on down from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. each night to get the plants in the ground. You don't have to have any prior garden knowledge [because] we'll show you how to do it."

Anyone interested in lending a helping hand is encouraged to swing by the Adelaide lot on June 12, 13 and 14. Details about the event can also be found on the Adelaide Monarch Garden Planting Party event page on Facebook