Gateway Garden helps monarchs and other pollinators survive

Sarah Friedman

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Nestled at 50th Street and Hiawatha lives a 15-year-old garden in the shape of a monarch butterfly’s wing. As an initiative of the Monarch Mile, it was created as a corridor to meet the needs of native pollinators through the different stages of their life. Many insects can’t travel far without stopping to rest, eat, for shelter, or to stay over winter. Some pollinators, such as Monarchs, lay eggs, then feed on milkweed as caterpillars and nectar as adult butterflies.
Nokomis East Neighborhood Association, working with many community volunteers, developed, maintained and nurtured the Gateway Garden through many years. Recently, the Hennepin County Master Gardening Program also designated the Gateway Garden as one of the community gardens nurtured by Master Gardeners. Co-leaders Jeanine Gregoirer, Brenda Beyer, and Lynn Bathkes work with many Master Gardeners from across the county to clear away each years stems and flowerheads, plant new native plants, weed, renew and maintain many plants throughout the garden. Over the years, at least 65 different types of native plants have been added with their own reasons to help butterflies, bees, and other insects.
Why do we need to focus so much on the types of plants and what they are able to do? Among many other things, this garden supports three generations of monarchs through every summer. As monarch butterflies migrate back to Minnesota in the spring, they are looking for young milkweed to lay their eggs; monarchs will lay eggs only on milkweed leaves. Once the larvae hatches, they will feed on the milkweed plant as they grow. The developing caterpillar larvae finally morphs into a chrysalis, continuing to develop into the full adult butterfly. Emerging from the chrysalis, the Monarch continues to feed on many flowers. Females lay eggs again on milkweed, and this generation that emerges as butterflies will migrate back to Mexico. This generation will need to forage for nectar, on plants such as bee balm, asters, liatris and joe-pye weed. Migrating monarchs travel up to 3,000 miles from Minnesota to preserves in Mexico during the fall. “It’s quite something," Jeanine said about the entire process. Not much is known about how butterflies naturally know where to go, but the whole process really is amazing.
How does she know what to plant, and how does she ensure the plants do okay? “It's good in any garden to have a variety of milkweeds,” Jeanine said, pointing out common, butterfly, and whorled milkweed that bloom at different times to serve as a host plants for monarch eggs.
“The beauty of these native plants is they have very deep roots,” she said as we walked along the garden, pointing out that some plants have roots that can go deeper than six feet. This helps them survive in drought and become incredibly resilient to many of the elements such as heavy wind or rain.
“We have quite a number of plants here that make up a prairie,” she said. Prairies are grasslands that have less than 10% tree cover. The tree of choice? She was proud to point out the number of burr oaks in the area. She called them a keystone species because they are able to host so many bird and moth species, and provide shelter to several insects and animals.
I was amazed by how many plants there were and how each of them evolved especially to help the local animals thrive. “There’s a dance with native plants and the insects that co-evolved with them,” Jeanine told me, as she pointed out various species of plants in the garden. For example, the cup plant is a plant with large cup-like leaves that collects rain water for insects and animals, including birds to drink along their way. “Bees don’t visit [non-native plants] as much as the native plants… there’s this sort of dance; this co-evolution," she said, pointing out the bee’s sacks full of pollen. In late fall, queen bees need to eat a lot of pollen because it contains protein and amino acids to help the queen bee survive the winter. This couldn’t be done without the co-evolution of the local pollinators.
I left the garden with a new sense of awe for what Jeanine, the community, and the other master gardeners do for our local wildlife. “It’s a lot of work – a lot of dirty work that can be hot and prickly,” she laughed. “This is a great place to learn… Come and enjoy. It’s a great place for kids to see insects, flowers and nature up close. It’s just fun. It’s fun to watch the interactions of nature. It changes every year.” I had no idea how much thought went into creating a garden, how much the local insects must do to survive, or how both plants and animals coevolve to survive. It was amazing to be able to see it with my own eyes.