The Porch Visits Yukon Farm Ahead Of Monarch Butterfly Festival

As monarch butterflies continue their yearly migration from colder regions of North America to the warmer air of Mexico, many of the insects are looking for safe places to rest and eat before they continue their arduous journey.

The Coca-Cola Southwest beverage Porch traveled to Mollie Spencer Farm in Yukon to see what is being done to provide monarch butterflies a safe space to rest.

"They are starting their migration from Canada down to Mexico," Mollie Spencer Farm program manager Emma Newberry-Davis said. "They come through central Oklahoma, and they love gardens, like our pollinator garden."

Newberry-Davis said the farm has created full-size gardens that provides not only a place free from predators, but also a spot full of pollinating opportunities for the butterflies.

"It's full of native plants," Newberry-Davis said. "Native garden, and so it needs less water, and it does well in these warm temperatures. It's very hardy, and butterflies and pollinators and bees of all kinds love hanging out here."

Newberry-Davis said the gardens at Mollie Spencer Farm are designed to be everything an animal like monarch butterflies would need.

"Everything looks kind of overgrown, but it's really serving a purpose," Newberry-Davis said. "Some of these things bloomed earlier in the summer, some are blooming now in the fall, so that the pollinators have things to drink on, to rest on, to put their eggs on, all year long. Milkweed is the host plant for monarch butterflies, that's the only thing that monarch caterpillars can eat."

Newberry-Davis also said in addition to all the opportunities for butterflies to visit the farm, on Saturday, there will be another opportunity for people to get involved,

"At our Monarch Festival on Sept. 28, this coming Saturday, we're going to be talking all about monarchs and ways that you can plant this garden in your yard, but also celebrating the monarchs," Newberry-Davis said. "We're going to be having face painting and monarch themed crafts, and we're gonna be making seed balls."

The Mollie Spencer Farm Monarch Festival will last from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturday.

For more information about the festival, click here.