Garden-Lou visits the Transgender Memorial Garden

Sometimes, and almost always by accident, you find something extraordinary and beautiful.

I happened upon one of these moments in the Benton Park West neighborhood while pulling honeyvine milkweed (Ampelamus albidus) off a fence when I found a monarch caterpillar. What to do?

A community garden sits at the corner of Wyoming and California, surrounded by a wrought iron fence on three sides and a building on the 4th side. From the street, the plantings obscure much of the garden. One has to enter through a quaint-covered garden gate before the beauty opens up and surrounds you on many levels. Along with the gateway, I held a beautiful metaphor in my hand who needed a new home to munch to his heart’s content until metamorphosis time. Butterflies are a symbol of transformation in the Trans community, and like the caterpillar, the Transgender Memorial Garden is one of those accidental finds.

The garden is the project of the Metro Trans Umbrella Group of St. Louis and is the second of its kind in the world. (The first is in Manchester, U.K.) The St. Louis garden is the first in the U.S. to honor the lives of transgender people lost to violence and celebrates the lives spent together.

Originally at Vandeventer and Hunt, the garden moved to the new location in May 2021 and shares the space with the Benton Park West Little Greenhouse and garden.

Sarah Jiang the volunteer manager at MTUG was kind enough to fill me in on the Transgender Memorial Garden scoop!

“MTUG actually has full ownership of the garden, but we do have a relationship with the neighborhood association, and we encourage neighbors to come and volunteer with us! We currently have a volunteer day, one Saturday a month. Typically, our volunteers range from 4 to 10 people.”

You can check out their page on Facebook to hear about volunteer opportunities and keep in touch.

https://www.facebook.com/transmemorialgardenSTL

As for my little caterpillar friend … he’s happy in his new home among the milkweed and his new friends.

Words and photos by Jo Batzer