Staff writer
Instead of the letting it go to ruin, Pam Bowers of Marion volunteered to pick the weeds from the butterfly garden nestled at the entrance to USD 408 Performing Arts Center.
Because of her work, the compass plants, asters, prim roses, purple poppy mallows, snake plants, blazing stars, and nearly 24 other types of wildflowers indigenous to Kansas plains continue to bloom in the spring, summer, and fall.
Former Marion Middle School science teacher Ann Leppke received an Outdoor Wildlife Learning Sites grant from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks for the butterfly garden and took a class at Dyck Arboretum of the Plains in Hesston to learn more about wildflowers.
Leppke and MMS seventh-graders, now MHS freshmen, planted the flowers in late April 2008.
“I’ve always loved flowers and plants and I hated to see that area go unused,” Leppke said.
Over the next two summers, Leppke, former Marion superintendent Gerry Henderson, and Bowers weeded, mulched, and watered the plants.
Bowers took over the bulk of the work this summer when Leppke moved to the USD 398 school district after the 2009-10 school year.
“I just thought it was a really neat project,” Bowers said. “I can hardly pass by a weed without wanting to pull it.”
Bowers also takes care of the trees at Marion Library and the water garden in Central Park.
Leppke is applying for grants with Peabody to put in a vegetable garden and an orchard.
She hopes the students who helped her plant the butterfly garden will continue to appreciate their work.
“I hope when they are seniors they say, ‘We did that,’” Leppke said.