Mariposa Garden’s 2025 success foreshadows future growth

When Adams Morgan couple Diana Aviv and Sterling Speirn planted a few lilies in Kalorama Park around 6 years ago, they didn’t know it would grow into a successful, three-tiered, community-led butterfly garden.

“That wasn’t our plan, you know. Our plan was to just put a few flowers in [Kalorama Park]” said Speirn.

Mariposa Garden sits in the middle of Kalorama Park near the intersection of 19th Street NW and Belmont Road. Although a volunteer gardener originally named the garden Jardín de Mariposas, the volunteers later decided to change it’s name to Mariposa Garden due to the lack of Spanish-speakers in the neighborhood, according to Speirn.

When describing  Mariposa Garden, Speirn calls it a guerrilla garden because the couple began planting without approval from the district, yet it receives support from the Parks and Recreation Department, visitors, and D.C. residents.

“The fact of the matter is that the whole community loves the garden. And so when you do something that everybody appreciates and it’s for the community, it’s not for ourselves,” said Aviv.

Today, Mariposa Garden has around 60 to 70 volunteers who participate in Saturday volunteer days, tending to the 60 to 70 varieties of flowers in the Garden, according to the couple. 

Along with the large quantity of volunteers, the garden has made huge strides this year: it launched its first official website, hosted multiple fundraising events, and featured its first wedding.

“It’s not just about Sterling and Diana,” said Speirn. “We would not have Mariposa if it weren’t for all of these volunteers.”

How the park began to flourish

Initially, Speirn and Aviv said they were the only two residents running and funding Mariposa Garden.

Their responsibilities included seeding plants at home, deciding how to arrange the plants in the garden, purchasing necessary supplies, and watering the plants weekly.

The community began approaching Mariposa Garden with interest in volunteering not long after they initially started planting, according to Speirn and Aviv.

“I felt that it was affirming, what we had started to create, that people wanted it,” said Aviv. “It also tells me that people want to give. People want to give and they want to do, and it makes them feel a part of something.”

ANC Commissioner Chairman Peter Wood said he started volunteering in the garden sometime between 2020 and 2021. He recalled a moment while working in the garden where he realized that city life had kept him from connecting with nature.

“When you can kind of detach from that (city life), it’s nice to just get your hands dirty and be touching earth. That’s a really important thing, and we kind of overlook it,.” Wood said.

Wood said it’s important for the community to support projects like Mariposa Garden because people develop trust with one another when they have a “shared investment in something.”

“It’s collectively ours as opposed to any individuals,” he said, “that’s what public parks, in my mind, are supposed to be.”

Enthusiasm from the volunteers eventually allowed Aviv and Speirn to delegate tasks to “stewards,” or lead volunteers, such as coordinating Saturday volunteer days and watering the garden during the week. 

Despite planting in a park owned by the district, the D.C. Department of Parks and Rec has never interfered with Mariposa Garden, according to Speirn. 

He said the garden and the district have a “symbiotic relationship” — the district provides the water, and the volunteers do the rest.

“It’s like we take care of ourselves, but the city gives us water, which is essential,” said Speirn.

Wood said there are other community-led projects designed to take care of the park and support the community.

One volunteer group has taken over maintenance of city-installed plants near the plaza staircase, and another group has cultivated a community garden, according to Wood.

“I think it’s an example of how the city government doesn’t always provide the services that taxes are supposed to pay for, but also that people in neighborhoods often want to make the neighborhoods more beautiful,” said Wood.

The Department of Parks and Recreation did not respond to specific questions from The Wash.

2025 – A year of firsts

This year has been the “year of first” for the Mariposa Garden, from fundraising, to volunteer involvement, to a new website, according to Speirn. He believes the garden will continue to have similar successes in the future.

From a fundraising perspective, this is the first year that Mariposa Garden gained a monthly donor and hosted events to raise money for the garden, said Speirn.

Speirn added that donations were generally healthy this year.

This is also the first year Mariposa Garden has its own website, something that Speirn said he feels is a real game-changer for Mariposa Garden. The website features information about the Garden, a portal to contact Aviv and Speirn, and a donation tab.

“I think we’ve sort of hit a nice level of sustainability and dynamism now that we have a way for anyone to become a volunteer through the website,” said Speirn.

From a community gathering perspective, Speirn notes that 2025 is the first year Mariposa Garden hosted a wedding, and it’s the first year he has seen Marie Reed Elementary School bring students to the garden to learn about pollination.

Speirn added that Mariposa Garden has more volunteers and more sign-ups on the mailing list than in any other year. Aviv said she counted 100 volunteers who have worked in the garden at least once.

“We’ve just had such an explosion of interest this year,” said Speirn.

When thinking towards the future, both Speirn and Aviv said they see this year as a sign of continued success at Mariposa Garden for years to come.

“My hope is that the community feels more and more attached to it and cares for it. Maybe down the road somewhere, not for the next year or so, we can create a children’s garden if we can get enough volunteers to organize that,” said Aviv.