Page 10 - Clinton Currents Volume XIX Issue 1 - Winter 2019

Page 10
Winter 2019
“What's a butter y garden without butter ies?” – Roy Rogers
(continued from page 1)
Kaltenbach pointed out that in the Garden of Life, the focus is on growing milkweed and nectar sources that monarchs thrive on. “We cater to the monarchs but because we’re a food garden we need pollinators to pollinate our plants, and to do that you need butter ies, moths, bees, other insects and birds,” she said. “I spread swamp milkweed all through the monarch ower garden this past year and hopefully it will come up in the spring.”
Thanks to her hard work at prepping the habitat year-round, Kaltenbach says the waystation will be ready for the monarchs’ return in July. “It does seem late in the year but as the weather warms they y up to Ohio and Indiana then they make their way up here and into Canada. They’ll start to eat the nectar from our plants and the lifecycle will start again.”
Kaltenbach’s enthusiasm for gardening began after she retired from the Macomb County Sheriff’s Department. She joined the Senior Center and was onboard six years ago to help get the garden started. She discovered a master gardener program offered through Michigan State University Extension and became so dedicated she earned the rank of master gardener and advanced master gardener all in the same year. “I can teach now, which is what I want to do over at the Senior Center,” she said.
In 2018, she decided to become involved with the Michigan State University Pollinator Champion Initiative. “At 73 years old, I’d never tried an online
The Senior Adult Services Garden of Life yielded more than 1,300 pounds of produce in 2018. Photo by J. Kaltenbach.
course but I got on, loved it, and became a pollinator champion,” she said.
Kaltenbach is very proud of the award and her certi cate of appreciation, “I told all my master gardener friends and they were very excited about it too.”
What You Can Do
To offset the loss of milkweeds and nectar sources MonarchWatch.org recommends creating Monarch Waystations in home gardens, schools, businesses, parks, zoos, nature centers, along roadsides and on other unused plots of land. Without a major effort to restore milkweeds to as many locations as possible, the monarch population is certain to decline.
Clinton Township seeking seasonal employees for summer 2019
Clinton Township has summer jobs available in the following areas:
- Assessing Dept.
- Division of Public Works - Water Division
The jobs are full-time, with a starting hourly rate of $10 to $11.
The application deadline to apply is Friday, April 12, 2019. To see a complete list of job postings, and to apply online, visit clintontownship.com/employment.