The new Butterfly Garden will be dedicated to the late Dr. Pam Littleton who began this project along with Camille Eckersley. The goal of the Erath County Master Gardeners is to demonstrate the benefits of a butterfly garden and encourage community members to create one of their own.
The Erath County Master Gardeners is a group of local garden enthusiasts that offer gardening knowledge for all while supporting Texas A&M AgriLife Extension with information on sound gardening practices and providing charitable and educational programs in Erath County.
The Butterfly Garden was originally a partnership with The Erath County Master Gardeners and the Stephenville Historical House Museum. Dr. Pam Littleton asked Mrs. Camille Eckersley if she would design a butterfly garden at the museum.
Pam served as a Professor of Mathematics at Tarleton State University from 1988 until she retired in 2011. She was the first female professor from Tarleton to receive the Regents Professor designation from the Texas A&M University System. Upon retirement, Pam was granted Professor Emeritus status and continued to work with public schools. She was also a charter member of Erath County Master Gardeners and Keep Stephenville Beautiful. She volunteered her time as a tax preparer for AARP as well as tutored children in mathematics. Pam’s passions included her family, gardening, math, teaching, traveling, and attending Tarleton volleyball games.
Camille Eckersley is Vice President of Erath County Master Gardeners, a Landscape Design Steward Through Texas A&M Landscape Design School and has been a butterfly gardener for over 30 years. She is also a Master Naturalist, Citizen Forester and a School Board Trustee for Bluff Dale ISD where she helped the teachers and children start a butterfly garden at their school.
Dr. Littleton and Mrs. Eckersley had the vision to create the butterfly garden, which took about four years to put everything into place. Dr. Littleton passed away in 2022, but Mrs. Eckersley promised she would finish the project. With the encouragement and support from Lonnie Jenschke, the County Extension Agent-Agriculture & Natural Resources over the Erath County Master Gardeners, Dr. Jill Burk and the Board of Keep Stephenville Beautiful, Dana Adams and The Stephenville Historical House Museum Board and Pam Littleton’s vision, the Butterfly Garden has now become a reality.
The Erath County Master Gardener - Butterfly Garden Committee was created and began with just an open area full of grass. They brought in gardening soil and compost and began building up the bed for planting. They brought in rocks from the grounds of the museum and arranged them as a border. Specific flowers were purchased and numerous flowers for the garden were donated by Belle Dowell, owner of Ace Hardware.
The committee added shrubs and flowers to attract butterflies. The irrigation, bird bath/fountain, and mulch were all added to help beautify the garden and help it become a certified Monarch Waystation through Monarch Watch. Monarch Watch is an education, conservation, and research program based at the University of Kansas that focuses on the monarch butterfly, its habitat, and its spectacular fall migration. Monarch Watch was founded in 1992 by Dr. Orley "Chip" Taylor and the monarch tagging program was launched in the fall of that year. Mrs. Eckersley has been following Monarch Watch and has had several of her gardens certified as Monarch Waystations. These are places that provide resources necessary for monarchs to produce successive generations and sustain their migration. By creating and maintaining a Monarch Waystation you are contributing to monarch conservation, an effort that will help assure the preservation of the species and the continuation of the spectacular monarch migration phenomenon. Monarch Waystations are certified all over America to help with saving the monarchs through migration.
Once the garden was completed, Jami Dominguez of Cre8 Signs donated the sign that will be displayed stating the Butterfly Garden was designed and will be maintained by the Erath County Master Gardeners. Keep Stephenville Beautiful will be providing a bench in the fall to help dedicate the garden to Dr. Pam Littleton. We thank the wonderful board of the Stephenville Historical House Museum for providing the Butterfly Committee the blank canvas to create the beautiful garden.
Because of Dr. Pam Littleton’s vision, she brought together so many groups and people to help beautify the Historical House Museum for generations to come.
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