For 2008: More Milkweed!
(Via A Larrapin Garden)
Maybe the milkweed has made me crazy, but the experience of watching the dozens of butterflies zoom around it and the dozens of monarch caterpillars happily munching away, has me committing more area to butterfly habitat next year. Here's another visiting lovely -- a swallowtail? -- pictured above. I'm searching through the catalogs looking for the magic words in the description: Attracts Butterflies. In particular, I hope to add a Paw Paw tree to draw Zebra Swallowtails.
I haven't had the chance to post due to dealing with a family illness. After being out of state for nearly a week, it was such a healing experience to drive back home and see the garden. Even though it's starting to fade as the heat is releasing it's grip a bit and the light begins to look like Fall, it looked like paradise after a week in hospital waiting rooms.
I'll start watching for the Monarch butterflies to be traveling by soon. One of my clearest memories from when we lived in North Carolina (and along a major Monarch flyway) was looking up into a stunningly blue September sky and seeing butterflies high above, so high they looked like pieces of distant confetti, tumbling southward. It's amazing they travel so far with that up and down rolling flight. This time, I'll be hoping that some of the butterflies traveling will be the offspring of some of the fat caterpillars that munched on this milkweed at Larrapin Garden.
Maybe the milkweed has made me crazy, but the experience of watching the dozens of butterflies zoom around it and the dozens of monarch caterpillars happily munching away, has me committing more area to butterfly habitat next year. Here's another visiting lovely -- a swallowtail? -- pictured above. I'm searching through the catalogs looking for the magic words in the description: Attracts Butterflies. In particular, I hope to add a Paw Paw tree to draw Zebra Swallowtails.
I haven't had the chance to post due to dealing with a family illness. After being out of state for nearly a week, it was such a healing experience to drive back home and see the garden. Even though it's starting to fade as the heat is releasing it's grip a bit and the light begins to look like Fall, it looked like paradise after a week in hospital waiting rooms.
I'll start watching for the Monarch butterflies to be traveling by soon. One of my clearest memories from when we lived in North Carolina (and along a major Monarch flyway) was looking up into a stunningly blue September sky and seeing butterflies high above, so high they looked like pieces of distant confetti, tumbling southward. It's amazing they travel so far with that up and down rolling flight. This time, I'll be hoping that some of the butterflies traveling will be the offspring of some of the fat caterpillars that munched on this milkweed at Larrapin Garden.
