Butterfly-friendly foliage fills the backyard of the Felty Farm on Windermere Street in Southgate, attracting monarch butterflies as well as pollinating insects.
Homeowners Randy (left) and Verne Felty oversee their annual Felty Farm butterfly garden event, which serves as a fundraiser for local animal rescue groups Aug. 31 on Windermere Street in Southgate.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
SOUTHGATE – Under the warm late August sun, an abundant garden of flowering plants on Windermere Street provides an oasis for migrating monarch butterflies and serves as a suburban Eden for pollinators.
Stepping into the Felty Farm, the proud work of homeowners Verne and Randy Felty, provides a sense of natural wonder, while also serving as a practical and profitable annual fundraiser for local animal rescues groups.
Verne Felty said she has been doing the fundraiser for 15 years.
She said when she put in a pond about 17 years ago, she put in a pond plant that attracted monarch butterflies, which sparked her interest.
“It’s important not just for the monarchs but for bees and all the pollinators, because spraying is eliminating them,” Verne Felty said. “Without the pollinators, we’re not going to have any food.”
She said the garden has several types of milk weed as well as many plants that are native to Michigan.
“You want to attract them with the plants that they normally would find in their area,” Felty said.
She said the migration of the monarchs will peak locally in late September.
“We’re both retired, so we do this now to help animal rescues and to teach people about monarchs,” Felty said.
Butterfly-friendly foliage fills the backyard of the Felty Farm on Windermere Street in Southgate, attracting monarch butterflies as well as pollinating insects.
Randy Felty said his hard work pays off for a good cause.
“I do about 30 to 40 percent of it,” he said. “I do the bulk work; she does the delicate things.”
Randy Felty said he wished more people were aware of the damage that they cause with insecticides.
“The honeybee population is way down,” he said.
Their granddaughter Amelia Ternes said she enjoys helping her grandparents with the annual event.
“It makes me very happy that people care and want to be here for the animals,” she said. “A lot of them like the butterflies and how we do all this for the animals.”
Among the animal groups present were the Animal Resource Funding Foundation, the N.B.S. Animal Rescue, the Feral Kitty Trappers, the River Rouge Animal Shelter, the P.O.E.T. Animal Rescue and the Brownstown Township Animal Shelter.
Local animal rescue groups set up tents in the front yard during the Felty Farm butterfly garden event to provide information and raise funds Aug. 31 on Windermere Street in Southgate.
Above and below, butterfly-friendly foliage fills the backyard of the Felty Farm on Windermere Street in Southgate, attracting monarch butterflies as well as pollinating insects.
Felty Farm granddaughter Amelia Ternes and Charlie enjoy the annual butterfly garden animal rescue fundraiser Aug. 31 on Windermere Street in Southgate.
Above and below, Monarch butterflies, attracted by the milkweed and other pollinator plants, land Aug. 31 in the Felty Farm butterfly garden on Windermere Street in Southgate during their migration.
