The Monarch Educational Gardens

The Arts Alliance of Southern Indiana’s Monarch Educational Gardens is an accessible community garden that fosters environmental stewardship and provides a tranquil getaway. The MEG consist of a loop path, surrounded by raised bed gardens containing plants specifically for the monarch butterfly such as zinnias, verbena, salvia, and milkweed. For those who don’t know, milkweed is the host plant monarch butterflies use to lay their eggs and that their caterpillars will eat to grow. Along the path you will see educational activities that teach about the life cycle of the monarch and bring awareness of their vital role in the ecosystem. Butterflies serve as a barometer for how the environment is doing. Through their delicate nature, butterfly numbers can decrease quickly when something is amiss in the ecosystem. By studying butterfly populations, scientists are alerted early to problems affecting all living things, including humans.

 

In addition to the butterfly plant gardens, we will also have a smaller garden for carnivorous plants, a crafted wetland area, and a little free library stocked with children’s books and gardening guides. 

 

With the Monarch Educational Gardens, the Arts Alliance aims to create a hub for natural science learning that is informative and engaging.

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