Portland group enjoys our butterfly workshop despite the weather!

A small group of dedicated community members were not deterred by the winter-like weather (13’C, rainy, and windy) on Sunday 13th November, but braved the conditions to venture out to our native butterfly workshop at the Portland Community Garden. The community garden Landcare group had expressed interest in learning about native butterflies of south-west Victoria, and so we headed over to repeat this workshop which has already proven popular in other towns across the region.

Attendees heard from NGTs own butterfly expert Bryan Haywood about the butterflies which inhabit our area and the native flora species which their lifecycles rely upon. Bryan took along some of his butterfly specimen collection, which provided a wonderful opportunity for attendees to have an up close look at the finer details of these beautiful insects that are sometimes hard to see when they are fluttering about.

Nursery officer, Yvonne Riley, followed up Bryan’s presentation with some information on the essential ingredients of a butterfly attracting garden, and led a guided walk (in between rain showers!) around the native plant display garden which we planted along with 40 volunteers in July 2014. Yvonne pointed out particular plants which were useful to butterflies, and workshop participants were very interested to learn about this facet of native plant gardening.

Thank you to the Portland Community Garden Landcare Group for your interest and for hosting the workshop!