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Vol. 53, No. 48
Milford (574) 658-4111 • Warsaw (574) 269-2932 • Syracuse (574) 457-3666
114 W. Market, Warsaw, Indiana 46580
BUTTERFLY GARDEN — Gack’s Flutterby Garden at Beaver Dam Lake in Claypool is the brainchild of Cindy Gackenheimer. The garden features host plants, which are very beneficial to butterflies, such as monarch butterflies.
Gack’s Flutterby Garden promotes a butterfly habitat
Text and Photos By PHOEBE MUTHART Staff Writer Monarch butterflies are beautiful to look at and are good for the environment. To imagine a world without monarch butterflies seems impossible. But it could be true if people do not help protect them. A Kosciusko County woman is trying to make sure that never happens. Gack’s Flutterby Garden at Beaver Dam Lake in Claypool is the brain child of Cindy Gackenheimer. A former pharmacist and pastor, she has been raising butterflies for the past 12 years. She is now retired and devotes herself full-time to taking care of the butterflies and her garden. It all began when she tore up her front yard and put in perennials, a butterfly weed. The following summer, she had larvae, or monarch caterpillars. “I fell in love with it,” she said. “Butterflies are pollinators and are good for the environment.”
A nonprofit, Gack’s Flutterby Garden aims to educate the public about one of Mother Nature’s most beautiful creatures. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature said the migrating monarch butterfly is on a “red list” of threatened species and categorized it as “endangered” — two
steps away from being extinct. Butterflies are beneficial to the environment. They pollinate plants in a garden. Butterflies are great for your garden as they are attracted to bright flowers and need to feed on nectar. When they do this, their bodies collect pollen and carry it to other plants. This helps fruits, vegetables and
MIGRATION MAP — Cindy Gackenheimer shows a map of butterfly migration. Monarch butterflies migrate to warmer climates, such as Mexico, in the winter months from October to late March.
flowers to produce new seeds. Gackenheimer’s goal is to raise awareness of ways the public can save the monarch butterfly. The garden features host plants, which are very beneficial to butterflies. These include American lady and violets. “The key is perennials, which attract butterflies like monarchs, and I do not use pesticides,” she said. Butterflies are quite particular in the larval host plants they choose. They must be plants which provide larvae (caterpillars) with proper nourishment. Gack’s garden features seven different plants for seven different types of butterflies. “It’s really fun, and I see a lot of bees,” she said. Gackenheimer’s garden is a certified butterfly garden and monarch way station. She also has a butterfly nursery where the eggs, or larvae, are raised. Eggs are then nd these plants laid on plants and will then become the food for the hatching caterpillars. Continued on page 3