From the Butterfly Garden, Meet Mona the Monarch!

Well, after growing milkweed for about three years, we finally had gotten a monarch caterpillar (see post from July 14) and were able to raise it all the way to adulthood.  Turns out "Mona" was actually a male (you can tell by the 2 black dots on the bottom wings).  What a great learning experience for both me and my little one!  I'd never seen a butterfly go through metamorphosis and it was so truly amazing to see this huge butterfly emerge from a tiny chrysalis.  In the picture below, the chrysalis is only about 2.5 in, but when the butterfly emerged, the wing span was something like 4.5 or 5 inches.  I couldn't believe it all fit in there!

Although it emerged yesterday, we waited until today to release it, since it was pretty cold and rainy yesterday.  The butterfly was super fast, and didn't stop to sip on the flowers, but instead just flew as fast and as high as it could into the sky; really a beautiful sight...

I'm thinking of growing a spicebush to attract the spicebush swallowtail butterfly ( and to use the leaves for tea).  Their caterpillars resemble little snakes with false eyes, which I thought would be really fun for Maddie to see.  The local nursery just got a shipment in, and a 3 gallon container costs $39...I'm tempted, but I also recently put in an order for a peach tree for the fall--a Burbank Elberta Dwarf Peach, as an homage to my husband's distant relative, botanist Luther Burbank.  Then again, isn't any plant purchase really a gift for all, so you can never really have too many?

Also, a couple weeks ago I picked up a few flowing vines--a cranberry vanilla honeysuckle a blue ravine clematis, and a pink clematis that I can't remember the name-- Menard's had the clematis on clearance for just 50 cents each-- who could resist?

First tomato harvest!

Picked our first tomatoes of the season today--delicious yellow cherries.

First caterpillar sighting!

Just found our first caterpillar on one of the milkweed plants.  I'm hopeful that it is a little monarch since it looks striped black and white.  I've just been looking for chewed up areas on the leaves; are there any other telltale signs to look for?

Siamese twin sunflower?

I've never seen anything like it, but when my sunflowers came into bloom this week, one of them was double-sided (see image above).  At first I thought it was just two blooms that were really close to one another, but upon closer examination, I realized they were actually fused together.  Is this common with sunflowers, or any other flower, for that matter, or is this just some sort of genetic aberration.  Any insight on this would be much appreciated.  Thanks!

July 2014 Garden Update and Inspiration for Next Year

Butterfly Garden

Sunflowers are growing like crazy, probably about 6.5 feet now.  Just added a top dressing of additional Mel's Mix soil and sprinkled some free coffee ground compost thanks to Starbucks.  Can't wait for all the flowers to be in bloom; we've had a few butterfly sightings, but not too many yet.  We officially registered the garden as a "Monarch Weigh Station" through the Monarch Watch website.  I thought that would be an added incentive to maintain and continue to expand the butterfly garden over the years.  

With the success of the sunflowers, I started thinking ahead to next year and what we might grown when I came across the idea of creating a "sunflower house", basically a little shelter created by sunflowers where little ones can sit out of the sun (see Sample at savvy housekeeping).  That seemed like something my three year old would love, as she already likes playing hide and seek with the regular cluster of sunflowers. 

If that goes well, perhaps in another two years, might try making a more permanent structure like willow hut as seen on Earth Play.

Veggie garden is doing well.  Had to restake the tomatoes; next year I'm going to try and experiment with trimming all the side branches so that they don't get so wild.  Still battling with the bunnies who have effectively decimated the strawberry plants :(.

June update: Mel's mix paying off

The sunflowers are growing like mad!  They are almost five feet tall now (fence is 4ft).  I think they have been growing ~4in a day lately.  Their stems are almost as thick as the trunk of our cherry tree.  Can't wait for the buds to open.  Also, the violas and sage have grown bushier than I have ever seen violas or sage grow (see close up below).

The Health Kick tomatoes from my parent's neighbor are also doing well and I finally started staking them with bamboo.  I always have trouble staking tomatoes--I never know if it should be more like a lean-to kind of support, or if the tomato vines should be tied directly to them, so I've just sort of rigged up a tippee-like system.

(If someone can tell me how to flip photos on Picasa, it would be much appreciated.)

Even Maddie's fairy garden is bursting our of it's pot--check out the columnar basil and lemon thyme spilling out.

Also, we have currently been able to harvest a few a strawberries before the rabbits have gotten to them, which has been nice (see horizontal pic above).  We have 12 strawberry plants, which seems like that would be enough, but we only are able to get 3-4 berries per day.  Any tips on recommended # strawberry plants per person?

I think the secret to the Mel Mix soil is that it's not like as soon as you plant things they just sprout up like crazy, rather that it works slowly over time to develop better roots so that eventually the above ground plant grows into something amazing (assuming the birds or rabbits don't get to first...).

We've actually put up a bird feeder to help distract birds and bunnies (who eat the cracked corn that falls to the ground) away from the garden.  They ate all the feed in 1 day.

Since some of the wild flower seeds didn't germinate, we planted a few milkweed plants and joe pie weed for the butterflies  (see sunflower pic above).

Garden Update May 2014: some successes, some failures...

Well the plants are finally starting to fill in.  The strawberries are looking great, tomatoes in back are doing okay, but some plants never really amounted to anything, namely the baby carrots, scallions, and snap peas...maybe I planted them too late in the season (mid April).  May replant something else in those squares.

Below is the butterfly garden.  I've spotted robins pecking around there, so perhaps that's why many if the wild flower seeds didn't sprout.  Again, may fill in those squares with something else. 

On Thursday, Maddie and I replanted her "fairy garden".  It has columnar basil, lemon creeping thyme, sedum, and curry plant (white leaves).  Maddie specially picked out the fairy and named her "cherry berry".

Also wanted to post updates of the grafted cherry tree and the lawn with microclover filling in the bare spots.