The 26th Life-Friendly Garden Tour took place on Sunday June 23. This was our first Summer Garden Tour!
As June 23 was the last Sunday of National Pollinator Week in 2024,
And it’s about the time when Monarch Butterflies reach New England.
We celebrated the Monarch butterfly!
Watertown has signed the Mayor’s Monarch Pledge. With this commitment to protecting and promoting pollinators such as the Monarch butterfly, Watertown is engaging residents, businesses, and neighborhood groups throughout the city on the importance of providing pollinator habitat.
As gardeners, we can:
- Make our gardens safe for Monarch butterflies and other pollinators by not using chemical pesticides, fertilizers, or herbicides 🐝
- Plant milkweeds to feed the caterpillars🐛
- Plant nectar plants to feed the butterflies🦋
Some guides on gardening for Monarchs are available from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and WaterSmart on the South Shore.
You don’t need to have a garden to:
- Attend educational events such as Pollinator Walks with Friends of Bees 🐝
- Help maintain our public gardens and/or remove invasive plants, such as Black Swallow-wort, with Watertown Pollinator Pathways🌻
- Enjoy community art and events about pollinators presented by Edible Watertown🦋
- Engage in citizen science, such as Journey North and iNaturalist. With Journey North, you can learn about the Monarch butterfly migrations and report your own observations. You can also report observations of any living being, including Monarch butterflies, to iNaturalist.🐛
And everyone can come to the Life-Friendly Garden Tour and visit some of the green places growing in Watertown!
The map and brochure for the Summer 2024 Garden Tour are posted below.
A printable version of the map and brochure describing the gardens is available here! Keep an eye on the online map for last minute additions.
The orange flowers indicate hosted gardens. Hosted gardens will be welcoming guests during the hours of the Garden Tour. Until the next tour, please be respectful and view these gardens from the street.
The golden flowers indicate unattended planting strips and public gardens. These are open for viewing from the street any time!
Co-hosted by Friends of Bees and Watertown Pollinator Pathways, this program is supported in part by a grant from the Watertown Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.