A colourful scene is what captures your eye as you approach Somersfield Academy’s butterfly garden at the entrance to the school.The garden showcases lots of different flowers and butterflies. It is maintained by a group of volunteers that includes students, staff and parents.The Royal Gazette met there with Tess Spencer and Nikki Buechhel who are in M3, Carraic O’Donnell who’s in fourth grade, Arianna Stapley who is in seventh grade and parent Lisa Greene.About a year ago, Mrs Greene, Dr Dorte Horsfield and Cynthia Cox decided to create the butterfly garden.According to the students, the butterfly garden just started off as a patch of dirt, a drain, and some weeds.It was made to welcome the students, and the visitors, as well as enhance the curriculum.The butterfly garden was designed to attract certain types of butterflies, like the Monarch, the sulfur, the gulf fritillary and the cabbage white.Each of these butterflies likes to eat different things like milkweed, the cassia tree, the passion flower, and plants from the mustard family, for instance broccoli and cabbage.Student volunteer Carraic O’Donell, told The Royal Gazette that the reason he joined the work party was “because he saw this place, and thought it was very cool, and one day when he came by they needed some help … so that’s how he started”.Carraic said he has had classes in the butterfly garden and has enjoyed every moment of it. You will often see him removing weeds and watering things.Carraic’s favourite flower in the butterfly garden is the milkweed. Carraic’s favourite butterfly is the Blue Morpho; sadly, it doesn’t come to Bermuda.Nikki Buechhel decided to help out with the butterfly garden for community service, as well as to make the school look pretty.Nikki also likes the Blue Morpho butterfly. She feels that without the help of the parent volunteers, the garden would still be a patch of dirt.When Arianna talked to The Royal Gazette she said: “The butterfly garden brought out a nice environment in the school.”She started in the butterfly garden for community service and because she enjoys gardening. Mrs Greene explained, “The garden is run by student and parent volunteers, as well as the help from the parent association for fundraising. It also helps the biodiversity of Bermuda.”Mrs Greene would also like to point out that this garden would be nowhere without team work, including Dr Horsfield and Mrs Cox. According to Mrs Greene, if you would like to start your own butterfly garden you should start small.It’s best that you go to the library at the Department of Environmental Protection in the Botanical Gardens or at the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo to learn more about local butterflies and their needs before you start.Some of the flowers you should put in a garden are lavender, milkweed, and lantana because they easily attract butterflies and grow well in Bermuda.The school is having their school fair on Saturday, May 28.Why don’t you go, and make sure to stop by and have a look at their colourful, wonderful butterfly garden and see how many butterflies are there.