‘Friends of Irving Gardens' Prepare Butterfly Garden for Spring

Tuesday felt like a mild spring day, but the greenery along the Bird's Fort Trail Park gave it away that winter is still here. Many trees are bare and flowers are not yet in bloom, but those who maintain a garden along the Campion Trail are using warm days like this to prep for the Spring.

The Friends of Irving Gardens, known as FIG, is made up of volunteers from the community. It started in the summer of 2020 as a way to restore the butterfly garden along the Campion Trail. It used to be full of weeds, but over the years it has transformed into a beautiful assortment of flowers and plants that attract pollinators.

"What started off as just a simple project and restoration, turned into a vehicle to educate the public, and for us also to learn about how we can use gardening, not just to beautify our spaces, but also to add benefits to our wildlife," said Fatema Biviji, the lead coordinator for FIG.

"Originally this was known as a hummingbird butterfly garden, we came to realize that pollinators as an entire group of wildlife are all important to keeping our ecosystem healthy," said Biviji who mentioned insects such as bees and caterpillars as just some of the names of pollinators.

She and other volunteers use their spare time to take care of the garden, which currently is dormant since it's winter time.

"I am seeing what’s blooming and what's doing well compared to last year after winter," said Biviji as she surveyed the garden. “It seems like every year there’s a different story that the garden tells, as far as what works and what doesn’t work.”

It's hard not to notice the dead plants in the flower bed, given the season.

"We leave these dead stems in place throughout the winter. They serve as sheltering areas for native bees, and also the seed heads provide nutrition to migrating birds during the winter," she explained. "That’s why they are purposely left there even though they’re dead, to provide protection to new growth that comes in Spring, so if we have an unexpected freeze, the other growth is protected."

But even amongst the brown foliage, signs of life are sprouting up.

"The Mexican plum is the first thing to bloom typically in the garden," said Biviji as she pointed to tiny flowers.

"There we have daffodils blooming that we had planted last year," said Biviji as she pointed to the yellow flowers with green stems growing along the perimeter. "Most things that we have planted, come back."

New this year for people to feast their eyes on is a sculpture created by Nimitz High School Senior Aidan Burton, who created the project for an Eagle Scout project. He worked under the guidance of Dallas sculptor George Tobolowski.

“What’s really cool is that the sculpture is made from reclaimed parts, which kind of fits into our whole theme of conservation and sustainability," said Biviji

The butterfly wing sculpture will be used as a trellis to grow a plant that attracts gulf fritillary butterflies.

What's been planted and rooted in this garden goes beyond just what the eye can see, it's the relationships that have been formed by those who come together to preserve Mother Nature.

“When you have a project that brings people from different parts of our community together, we're able to spread the word on practices that not only benefit our spaces aesthetically but also our wildlife," said Biviji.

The Friends of Irving Gardens is looking for more volunteers. People can sign up through their website.