June 2013 -Growing Little Green Thumbs
by Ruby Haydock DeLoach

When we were little girls, my sister and I liked to stand in the mud puddles and see who could make the loudest and longest lasting noises by squishing mud between our toes. Children are not alone when it comes to liking mud puddles. Find a mud puddle after a spring downpour of rain, and you’ll find butterflies love it so much they create a fluttering flower. Attracting butterflies to the garden is wise as they are pollinators. Create a butterfly puddle for your garden. Don’t be muddleheaded as you pass by your puddle, smile and say to the flutter of yellow Monarch wings, “Compound it! I just saw butterfly!”

While buttering the morning toast, capture a child’s imagination and make them eager to join you outdoors in the garden by asking, “Today, would you like to help me make butter fly?”

How to Make a Butterfly Puddle

• Find a sunshine spot in the garden and a large shallow bowl about 16 – 20 inches in diameter (the top of a birdbath works really well) and fill it with sand.
• Add water to make the sand nice and moist (keep the sand waterlogged at all times).
• To slow down evaporation, dig a shallow hole so that the top of the bowl is even with the soil.
• Add about a tablespoonful of well composted manure/chicken manure/ mushroom compost/stale beer.
• Add a teaspoonful of salt.
• Decorate with stones and a few seashells as places for the butterflies to sunbathe. Figurines like sleeping angels or other shelf sitters add to the beauty..

Fun Activities: (1.) Highlight all the compound words in this expository writing sample.                Hint: There are 13. If a compound word is used more than once, it still counts as 1. To make it easy to see I used yellow for each butterfly word.   Find 8, GREAT! Find 10, SHARP AS A PIN! Find 12+, GENIUS AT WORK! (2.) After the next spring downpour of rain, take off your shoes, be a kid again and compete with a child to see who can make the loudest noises squishing mud between the toes.

Science Question to Answer:  On sunny days after a rain, why do butterflies gather around mud puddles? Visit your public library and check out butterfly books. The symmetry of wing patterns is an example of geometry in nature.