- Welcome to Oklahoma Gardening.

Today, we're sharing a best of Oklahoma gardening all about butterflies.

Join us as we learn about the importance of butterflies and how they are raising them at the Uchi Butterfly Farm, and tips for homeowners to be more successful.

Underwriting assistance for our program is provided by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry, helping to keep Oklahoma green and growing.

Oklahoma Gardening is a proud partner with Shape Your Future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust.

Shape Your Future provides resources for Oklahomans to make the healthy choice the easy choice.

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It's a place to learn, to grow, and be inspired.

It's where Oklahoma State University bridges research, education, and passion.

We share one goal, to serve the gardeners who inspire us.

That's what makes Oklahoma Gardening true to Oklahoma and true to gardeners.

Today, we are in South Tulsa, actually in Leonard, Oklahoma at the Yuchi Butterfly Farm.

And joining me is Jane Breckenridge, the owner and operator of this farm, and it's a unique farm.

Let's talk about what you're raising and the legacy of this place.

- Right.

So, so we are a working butterfly farm, the only working butterfly farm in the state of Oklahoma.

And yes, a butterfly farm is a real thing.

It's not like a hippie hobby, although that sounds like something totally I would be into.

But no, we are, we are.

Some people have livestock that are, you know, cattle or goats or hogs.

I'm just really lucky because my livestock is butterflies.

And - It's a beautiful - Operational that - You have here.

- Thank you.

- Let's talk a little bit about the legacy of this place.

- Right.

So it wasn't always a butterfly farm, but it has been in our family for 127 years.

This was my great-grandmother's original allotment from 1899 when she was 16 years old.

The entire allotment is still in family hands.

As far as we know, it's the last intact allotment in Tulsa County.

And it was they, they held onto it a great sacrifice.

And so for us to be able to think about how do we honor those sacrifices and how do we do it in 21st century way?

For some people, it point A to B may not be start a butterfly farm, but but for us, it, it, we feel like it's what she would've wanted.

- Right.

And you're, you're carrying on those native roots and traditions, - Right?

- We are.

And working with the indigenous people.

Let's - Talk a little bit about that.

We are.

So we are more than a butterfly farm.

We are the home of the Tribal Alliance for Pollinators, which is the largest native-led grassland restoration organization in all of North America.

We work with tribes and tribal members to restore native plants back to their lands, both to help pollinators, help butterflies, for cultural plants as well.

We have a lot of that.

We work with pretty much all the tribes in Oklahoma, and then tribes nationally as well.

We've worked with 91 different tribes so far to restore native plants back to their lands.

- Wow.

So let's talk a little bit about how that whole operation works.

Right.

- You're talking - From finding the seeds to growing - Them out.

Right.

And it's, it's a labor of love.

So we only use locally sourced native seeds.

Yes, you can order seeds on the internet.

That's all very good and well.

But what we want to make sure we're doing is restoring what was actually lost here.

So all of our seeds, and we've got 280 different types of seeds in our, in our seed bank, those are all wild collected here locally, and then they're grown out in our hoop houses, and then they go back to tribal lands to restore those.

We've lost over 96% of our native grasslands here in Oklahoma, and that's been devastating for pollinators, for our beautiful butterflies.

And we're just helping the tribes to help the land and, and help all those species at risk.

- So tell me a little bit, you're creating pollinator islands.

- Right.

And so most people haven't heard of that, but it's a really cost-efficient way to do habitat restoration.

And it was, it was, it was a protocol that was designed by Dr.

Chip Taylor, who was our co-founder of Tribal Lions for Pollinators.

He invented the Monarch Way Station and then he really expanded that concept outwards to do the pollinator the pollinator islands.

So with the habitat islands, we go through, we restore in an area about 20 by 20, we remove the non-native invasives.

And then we do a dense planting of 20 plus species of native plants.

We've grown out in our hoop houses.

And then over time, they recolonize.

And we've seen it happen.

You know, we've done thousands of these and it really does work.

It's a really cost-efficient way to do this and bring these species back and do it in a really biodiverse, beautiful way.

And, and not just for our pollinators and our butterflies, but for our native birds as well.

- So tell me a little bit, why was it so important to get the tribal nations involved in this?

- Well, that's a really good question because a lot of people don't understand what the, what the connection is between the tribes and the butterflies.

But when the monarch butterfly population hit its all-time record low in the winter of 2013, 2014, the USDA released a map.

Where were the critical zones if we were going to save monarch migration?

And Oklahoma was right in the middle of the bullseye.

That was before the Okies decided they were for Monarchs, which I love now, by the way.

But that was back when telling people you wanted to bring milkweed back to the working lands of Oklahoma was pretty controversial.

But at that time, even though we didn't have a lot of other organizations on board, the tribes were ready.

And the only question they ever had was, how are we going to do this?

Not why are we going to do this, but how?

And so they came together, seven tribes with Chip Taylor from Monarch Watch.

And we set out not only to restore Monarch Habitat in Oklahoma, but also to build the capacity in this region.

Oklahoma is important with the tribes because the Monarch Flyway where the migratory path is, is mostly the eastern two-thirds of the state.

90% of that area is under dual jurisdiction between tribes and other entities.

Tribes have huge land holdings, a cultural commitment to do that.

And before our program nobody was really reaching out to them to engage them in this work.

So it's been hugely successful.

It's even included National Geographic Magazine.

And and we've been really, really happy and proud to be able to expand on the work, to now help our native bees, to.

We've had 91 different tribes throughout the United States participate in our programming.

So we, we are very, very proud of it.

So we've got Natives Raising Natives, which is our tribal butterfly farming program that's about sustainable and economic development.

Also youth education, and it's a really cool way to get kids excited about science.

Also, a really great way with those butterflies to promote conservation.

We have a food sovereignty program fit our food initiative for tribes, and that's got a teaching kitchen and gardening classes.

We're a prescribed burn association.

We got a lot going on here.

And we are open to the public for tours two days a week.

And people can go to our website at wwwnativebutterflies.org and sign up for tours, learn more about the work.

We are a working farm, but we also have a nonprofit that lives here as well that does all of our education and conservation work.

- You guys are doing so much, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

And I would encourage our viewers to come and visit you guys on your website at least to get more information - Too.

Yes.

And we'd love to have host them for a tour.

We're open for tours two days a week.

Everybody can do their part, and we'd like to share with people how, so.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

- Look at this livestock you have behind us.

I do.

- You know, it is a, it's a real thing.

You know, people, people don't think that of, you know, when you think of farming in Oklahoma, you don't really think of butterflies.

But yeah, we are a real USDA regulated working butterfly farm.

- Okay.

So you're working with natives, right?

- Yes.

- Let's talk about the, the type of butterflies you're raising here, first of - All.

Right.

And so right now we have monarchs, we've got pipeline swallow tails.

We've got Anea Andrea, also known as the goat weed leaf wing butterfly.

We're the only people in the country that raise it.

And and we got varigated fiddlies and painted ladies as well.

- Excellent.

So what does it look like to raise butterflies?

Talk us through that process, if you would.

- Okay.

Yeah.

So it's like any kind of other livestock or farming operation, agriculture operation.

I'm just very lucky because other people are dealing with big cattle or, or hogs or goats or something.

And I got these beautiful little butterflies.

But it, it boils down to the same thing.

Your, your animals need good, clean quarters to live in, and they got to have plenty of healthy forage.

They got to have a lot to eat.

- Okay.

And for butterf - or for monarchs specifically, we're talking about milkweeds.

We - Are talking about milkweeds.

So - But each of them - Need a specific forge, right?

- Right.

What they call a host plant.

And and so with each different species of butterfly, they have a different host plant.

So for instance, if we're raising Eastern black swallow tails, a lot of people get those in their gardens.

They eat dill or fennel or parsley.

Monarchs, it's milkweed.

Pipevine swallowtails, you can guess, pine vodka, right?

Right, right.

So, but the cool thing is with butterflies, you're working with nature instead of against nature on your farming operation, because these plants, these are native butterflies, native plants, they want to grow here.

- So you're not just growing butterflies, you're growing all of that forage as well.

We are.

And it starts with microgreens?

- It does start with microgreens, just like for people.

- Different type of microgreens, right?

- Yeah.

Well, yeah, because I don't, I don't, you know, if you come over, I don't think you want me to serve you on milkweed salad probably, right?

So so right.

So we use microgreens.

With the, with the butterflies, to kind of walk you really quickly through the process is we start with an egg.

Every, every butterfly or moth goes through four life stages.

Egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, adult.

When they're in their caterpillar stage of their life, they are voracious eater.

The very hungry caterpillar turns out it's a real thing.

They're going to increase their mass by over 2,000 times in less than two weeks.

It's like a newborn baby going to the size of a school bus that quickly.

Huge caloric demand.

So those microgreens in particular are really packed with nutrients.

Okay.

So we feed those a lot.

- When you say microgreens, that's essentially a flat of milkweed that you're - - It is a flat of milkwheat.

And so when it just first comes up, it's, it's really those greens are really, really packed with nutrition.

They've not thought about producing seeds yet or putting their energies into other things.

Okay.

So those are really highly efficient in terms of meeting their caloric needs.

- Okay.

So how long are those caterpillars, those hungry caterpillars on those microgreens?

- So they can, you know, you think about a flat, you know, a 10 1020 flat, right?

You know?

And so they can, if you've got like, say, 50 caterpillars in there, 24 hours, they'll have that whole thing decimated.

- Wow.

- Yeah, they're so hungry.

Okay.

They're so hungry.

- Okay.

So you've got several black little cages behind us.

- Yes.

And - Essentially, they're feeding in there and then they crystallize in there.

- Exactly.

They'll, they'll pupate in there once they go to the fifth, the fifth fifth instar.

And they'll go to the top of the cage and they will spin a little soak pad.

They'll hang in what looks like a form of a J for about 24 hours.

And then they'll shed their skin one more time.

And then what's left behind will harden off into the chrysalis.

A lot of people think that that butterflies are going to have cocoons.

Those are silk laws, like those beautiful lunamos and that kind of stuff.

But most of our, our butterflies are going to shed their skin.

It's going to harden off.

And then if like they're monarchs, they're going to be the most beautiful green little crystallid left behind.

They - Look like jewelry hanging - With the old one.

They do look like jewelry.

I've seen earrings made not out of the real ones, but if I can recreate, you can never recreate.

- Yeah, they're absolutely beautiful.

- And - So at what point are you then selling your stock off?

- Right.

So livestock, just like any other, you know, you can sell little ones are the big ones, right?

So for in our case, we do sell Caterpillar kits because those are a wonderful educational thing.

We sell them as chrysalids, and we also sell them as adult butterflies.

And, and so we can ship them as well.

Believe it or not, they get packed into little special shipping containers and can go FedEx.

And the next morning, they can be there at 10:30 in the morning.

Wow, beautiful.

- And those are little advocates out there, right?

For - Conservation.

So you know, when people, when people see them we want them to think about, you know, when you see that beautiful butterfly that we've sold you we want people to think about, yeah, these are really special and wonderful.

I wonder what I can do to help make sure that we don't lose them you know, to go extinction.

- Well, that's fantastic.

And thank you so much for sharing your operation with us - Today.

Oh, thank you for visiting.

We love to share it with folks.

- And Jane, we've visited your farm in a few different instances.

Yeah.

But today I want to talk about the homeowner that might be rearing butterflies as a professional butterfly producer.

Tell us a little bit of some tips, pros and cons of that.

- It's, it's the same for everybody.

And so it's, it's about clean, healthy food.

It's the same as for people too, right?

- Right.

- And so one of the things that I tell people, one of the easiest things we can all do to get started is create a non-toxic zone in your yard or garden.

- Okay.

- So this is, I've had, I've had people tell me they created butterfly gardens and they didn't have any butterflies and ask if they're spraying poison and they're like, "Well, yeah, just to kill the ugly bugs."

So there are no ugly bugs as far as our butterflies are concerned.

So if you can do nothing else, do a non-toxic zone.

But beyond that is you need to think about what are you hoping to attract?

Are you, do you want adult butterflies?

Then you need nectar plants.

Do you want to actually see the whole life cycle?

Then you got to have host plants for the appropriate butterflies for where you, where you live.

- Right, because butterflies are very specific.

They are good at plant ID, right?

Yeah, they - Are.

They are.

And fun fact they actually taste with their feet.

Okay.

And they smell with their antennae.

So, so when that mama, mama butterfly is looking for where to lay her eggs, 200 to 400 eggs, she's going to taste with her feet and make sure it's the right plant that her offspring can, when they, because they come out, they're only little tiny eggs and they can't crawl long distance.

So, so she's going to be able to tell by landing on it.

She doesn't need an app to idea what she can tell.

So so thinking about having, you know, milkweeds for the monarchs thinking about parsley dill fennel for the Eastern Black swallow tails, you could do some passion vine, some pipevine.

Those are all beautiful, beautiful local species.

- So Jane, what about the sugar water sometimes I see out in the gardens?

- Yeah.

So so here at, at the farm, we use Gatorade.

Oh.

Actually red Gatorade.

Okay.

And they will nectar on it.

And and it's, it's junk food sort of.

But you know what?

In a pinch, it will do.

Okay.

So yeah, it's got the salts and the sugars and everything they need.

If there's good nectar sources, they won't come to that, but if there's not, hey, it'll do.

- Okay.

And one of the important things is the season extension, to have those nectar plants throughout the, the season, right?

Right, - Right.

And so and so we want to make sure because, you know, when those butterflies are first coming out, a lot of the spring, summer over wintering as adults, and they're coming out, and they're, they're so hungry.

They've not eaten all winter.

And so if you can plan your bloom times, if you're, if you can just be a little mindful when you're doing your garden planning to make sure that you've got blooming plants all the way through the season.

And then it's important, particularly important in the fall, because as the monarchs migrate through - Right.

They have got to really nectar up because not only do they have to fly up to 3,000 miles, sometimes up to 70 miles a day they have got to get enough fat resources to live all winter long on that fat.

They won't feed all winter through over in wintering grounds.

Okay.

So everybody in Oklahoma needs to do their part to make sure that those guys have got enough nutrition as they pass through.

Okay.

- We're the last pit stopper before they get to Mexico.

- If they fail, it's on us.

- Okay.

All right.

So essentially, they're, they're migrating back through in late September, October?

Is - That - Yeah.

Yeah, mid, mid to late September, depending on, on the year.

- All right.

So what about the people that are rearing them?

They might have seen them in their garden, they bring them into one of those cages.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

- Oh, you know, is, it's, it's probably not going to help save monarchs, you know?

Okay.

It like is, it's the whole population.

But what it does is I think it gives people a really amazing experience to better understand monarchs.

So so I personally, I'm, I'm fine with doing it.

And you are, you know, so less than 5% of monarch eggs in the wild actually make it to adult butterflies.

Most of them go into the food web.

That's nature.

But, you know, it's just, it, it's sad to watch them get parasitized.

So I, I, I enjoy bringing them in.

It's actually how we got started butterfly farming over 30 years ago is bringing them in.

- Okay.

So you're saving one starfish at a time.

Yes, I'm selling.That's - Exactly what we're doing.

And also just having one of the most miraculous experiences.

So, but if you are going to do that, got to make sure they've got plenty of food and keep them clean.

Take out the frass every day.

Don't handle them with your hands or if you do, use gloves.

- Okay.

And do they need water?

- No.

- Okay.

All right.

Well, thank you so much for this information.

Thank you.

- Hi, I'd like to introduce you to our new wildflower meadow.

We planted this in the fall.

We just used a seed spreader and spread the seed over this.

And we're just really pleased with how beautifully the wildflowers have sprouted.

Let me tell you a story about why we needed to do this and what happened here.

About 15 years ago, there was construction done here, and this whole area was cleared, and native plants were planted.

But then because of people leaving the university and other reasons, the area wasn't maintained.

Lay spark elms were along this area, and they spread their seeds into this area.

And after a few years, we realized, oh my gosh, we have millions upon millions of lay spark elm seedlings coming up in this area.

We've come through with a forestry mulcher, and we have mulched this whole area right down to the ground.

And then we came in after that ground had been disturbed with the forestry mulcher, we came in and spread the wildflower seeds in the fall.

Now, we've used a wildflower mix here that has natives and non-natives.

You can purchase a wildflower mix that would be exclusively natives.

We didn't do that.

We have other wildflower meadows here at the garden.

There are exclusively natives, but in this one, we chose to use a readily available seed mix that has a mix.

They did sprout really, really well.

Now we have the challenge of maintaining this.

Just because it's wildflowers doesn't mean it's no maintenance.

There's no such thing as a no maintenance landscape.

We have to come in here now and first off, take care of the lay sparks that are re-sprouting.

That forestry mulcher came in and cut them all down to the ground, but it didn't necessarily kill them.

They are now re-sprouting from the stumps.

And so we're going to come in with an herbicide and just very directly kill just those lay spark elm sprouts so that we can maintain this as a meadow.

So we have not irrigated this.

We have not had much rain this spring, so we're very pleased at how well this looks, how well these have sprouted up with almost no rain.

So that is a good thing that this is maintaining on its own and looking so beautiful on its own, but it's not no maintenance.

We will have to come in here to maintain this as a meadow.

The other thing that's really important is when you have a meadow, a wildflower meadow, is to leave the plants alone while they produce seed heads.

Let those seeds dry and fall to the ground so that they will be next year's flowers.

As a matter of fact, some people say wildflower gardens aren't good until the second or third year because it takes some time for the seeds to germinate and for those flowers to bloom.

So this is our new wildflower meadow.

Just planted it in the fall.

So this is not multiple years old.

This is brand new.

We wanted to keep the soil from eroding.

So we wanted to establish something in here very quickly.

So we just spread that wildflower seed and we're really pleased with how it turned out.

We think it's beautiful.

Now we're going to keep maintaining it, keep the lace barks from re-sprouting.

Maybe we'll find other invasives that we don't like and we'll get rid of them as well.

But no such thing as no maintenance.

Gardens always require work, but gardens always have wonderful rewards.

- Today we are at 8th Street Urban Farm, and joining me is Evan Mosshart, who is the CEO of this nonprofit organization.

And you guys have a, I mean, amazing farm, first of all.

Let me say that.

- Well, thank you.

- But this is kind of a different business model.

Can you share with us how you got started?

- Sure thing.

So my wife and I were overseas about 10 years ago, and we got inspired by some ladies who were starting gardens overseas to help their neighbor.

And so I said, whenever we got back, I said, "Hey, what if we could do something similar to that?"

And so went and was an apprentice with a local farmer, Kevin Marshall of Indigo Acres, learned enough to get dangerous, I guess.

And wrote a business plan, pitched St.

Anthony Hospital to use a little bit of their space in Midtown Oklahoma City.

And they said yes.

So we started there and then they have just expanded.

And this is the biggest site.

We have multiple sites around the city, and this is the biggest one.

- So tell me a little bit about this program and how you got involved with this apprenticeship program and what it's meant to you.

- Absolutely.

So Josh Campbell has been an incredible resource for me for the last few years.

Help with soil tests and resources and advice and connections that has really made a huge difference for me because I don't come from this.

I come as an IT a network administrator to this line of work, so I didn't have any connections.

So one of the hardest things for small-scale farmers, I mean, basically for any farmers, one of your biggest line items is labor.

- Right.

- And we know for this state, I think people look at us as an agricultural state.

And, but we don't grow a ton of specialty vegetables.

So having people that are willing to step in and do this work, have the skill to do it, and have the support.

And so OSU is giving me all those things.

- I'm getting to learn so much more.

I've never gotten to work with tractors.

So something this year, like getting to learn a little bit of diesel mechanics and stuff.

But even just getting to learn how to use a tractor, change out attachments and stuff, that's been something for me that's been really fun to get to learn.

I have never had any experience actually farming or gardening or anything like that.

It wasn't until Evan asked me, "Hey, I, if you got an extra day, I could really use some help.

If you could come out and just help me harvest collards and stuff like that."

And it was just that day I was out there that I just fell in love.

- So they're giving me support to teach people how to do this.

They're giving those people resources to learn on their own time.

It's just been an incredible opportunity for me to scale so much quicker than I would be without this opportunity.

- And then just also the large scale farming aspect.

Instead of doing 25 or 50-foot beds, you know, we're working on 100 and 400 footbeds and just kind of getting to see how that changes our day-to-day, how we need to pick up the pace.

It's been a, it's been a lot of fun just seeing myself get stronger and in better shape too.

If you can, volunteer with somebody, come out, get some hands-on experience, and really be willing to put in some hard work.

Because if you do that, you're going to see some amazing production.

- And, and what would you say about this community of urban farmers?

Having been an apprentice yourself, right?

And then now being able to be the mentor in this situation, what would you say about this community of people?

- I mean, it's just the kindest, most helpful, empathetic, generous people that you're ever going to find.

I mean, it's, it's Oklahomans on steroids.

You know what I mean?

People have been incredibly kind.

They've helped me with equipment and resources and everyone gives towards each other.

It's been an incredible opportunity.

- Very good.

Thank you so much for sharing this with us today.

- Absolutely.

- And as always, if you have questions about today's show, feel free to reach out to your local county OSU extension office or leave us a comment on social media.

There are many great horticulture activities this time of year.

Be sure and consider some of these events in the weeks ahead.

Join us next week on Oklahoma Gardening as we're digging up some dirty laundry out of the garden.

Today we're back here at the - Hold - On.

On your forehead.

- Oh.

- Thanks.

- Okay.

Butterfly.

- Don't hit it, don't hit it.

And ready and rolling.

- To find out more information about show topics as well as recipes, videos, articles, fact sheets, and other resources, including a directory of local extension offices, be sure to visit our website at oklahomagardening.okstate.edu.

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Tune into our OK Gardening Classics YouTube channel to watch segments from previous hosts.

Oklahoma Gardening is produced by the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service as part of the division of agricultural sciences and natural resources at Oklahoma State University.

The botanic garden at OSU is home to our studio garden, and we encourage you to come visit this beautiful Stillwater gym.

We would like to thank our generous underwriters, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, and Shape Your Future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust.

Additional support is also provided by the Tulsa Garden Club, Greenleaf Nursery, and the Garden Debut plants, the Tulsa Garden Center, the Oklahoma Horticultural Society, and the Tulsa Herb Society.