A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
SWCD District 2 supervisor and board chair Russell Kurhajetz brings Molly Henrick her pollinator plant kit. A butterfly lover, Henrick was one of many people who purchased native plant and seed kits, which provide critical habitat for bees, butterflies, songbirds and many other types of wildlife that use the vegetation for shelter and food.
The Cloquet Public Library got a new rain garden this week, courtesy of Boy Scout Troop 171 and several other adult and younger volunteers as well as library staff. The group planted the rain garden using four of the SWCD native plant kits. SWCD's Alyssa Bloss said the volunteer gardeners learned why rain gardens are important in a workshop last week, then scouted out an area suitable for a rain garden. The new garden is the first landscaping project on the new library grounds. Vegetable, fruit and pollinator gardens are in the works, Bloss said.
Every summer, Molly Henrick and her kids collect monarch eggs near their rural Blackhoof home and take care of them until they grow into butterflies. Henrick figures they release about 500 butterflies a year.
So when she heard about the native plant kits and seed mixes being sold through Carlton Soil and Water Conservation District, and found out there was a set specifically for pollinators, she jumped at the opportunity.
"I don't think people realize the chances of those eggs making it to butterflies aren't very high," Henrick said, citing that there are flies that will lay eggs on the caterpillars (eventually killing the chrysalis), along with other environmental threats.
In all, the Carlton SWCD sold more than 200 native plant kits this year, and more than 50 native seed mixes. SWCD conservation specialist Alyssa Bloss said it was one of the biggest, maybe a record, native plant sales by a SWCD in the state of Minnesota.
Bloss explained that native grasses and wildflowers provide critical habitat for bees, butterflies, songbirds and many other types of wildlife that use the vegetation for shelter and food. Low-cost and low-maintenance, native plantings do not require fertilizing or regular mowing or irrigation, and have a very positive effect on the soil. Their extensive fibrous root systems, which can grow down to 15 feet deep, reduce erosion, restore soil health, and filter runoff before it enters nearby streams and lakes.
There was a variety of plant kits to choose from, including one specifically for monarchs, as well as pine mulch, songbird, rain garden, deer-resistant, shade and pollinator kits. Each kit consisted of six species that bloom from spring through fall, totaling 36 plant plugs covering about 150 square feet, at $60 each. Native plant seed offerings included native pollinator, monarch and songbird mixes, at $18 each. The plants are supplied by Minnesota Native Landscapes, an ecological restoration company that scours the state to collect and grow seed from native plants, to ensure that the kits are easy to plant and maintain. The kits provide a mix of colors and plant heights for optimal aesthetics and function for wildlife.
"Partnering with counties throughout the state has been allowing homeowners to learn about and plant native plants and seed tailored to the biomes they live in," said Lindsay McClain, MNL's field staff supervisor. "This program has grown so much in just a few short years: we have sent over 500 kits to Carlton County since last year, and thousands across the state."
Carlton's Sarah Helwig picked up two shade-plant packs Friday afternoon. She lives along the bike connector trail in Carlton, and plans to plant between the trail and her yard. She's looking forward to seeing the woodland violets bloom.
"I figured if I'm going to enjoy flowers, I might as well have other people enjoy them too," she said.
County commissioner Gary Peterson and his wife, Barb, came to pick up a pollinator plant mix, along with a songbird and pollinator seed mix.
"We are adding on from last year (the first year the SWCD sold the native plants)," said Barb. "Everything is back and doing really well. We only lost a few out of 70-plus plants."
Henricks is excited about providing some healthy plants for the many monarchs that now make their home in her area.
"There were none in the area before we started to find the eggs on other milkweed plants," she said. "We release them in our area, and now our road is busy with butterflies, and you can't look at a milkweed plant without finding three or four eggs."
Bloss said the combined effect of all the plant kits sold would add more than 30 acres of pollinator habitat to the local landscape.
