The Patagonia Butterfly Garden was started in 1997 by a small group of volunteers from the Patagonia Area. The founder of the group had seen butterfly gardens in other communities and thought Patagonia, with its phenomenal number of butterflies, would be a perfect place for such a garden. Permission to renovate the existing planted area in the park was given by the Patagonia Town Council who agreed to supply the water for the garden. Many local residents, businesses, and organizations made donations for plants and irrigation equipment. Valuable advice for planting the garden was provided by Jim Brock - a noted butterfly expert living in Tucson.
Volunteers perform all the maintenance for the garden.
Noted butterfly expert and author, Bob Stewart , now lives in the area and maintains the butterfly list for the garden. It was installed in July of that year and has grown in nicely. We have had the beginnings of website coverage for a couple years with a complete listing of the plants initially planted. There remains much more to do, primarily scanning photos and getting them posted to the site. The garden is located at the Sonoran Arthropod Studies Institute in Tucson Mountain Park .