Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Need Help Building a Butterfly Education & Exploration Site, 0 by SingingWolf

SingingWolf wrote:
Wow, it sure has been a long time since I have had the time to write a post. So much has been going on too.
Briefly, I met up with a wonderful DG member back at the beginning of October. She gifted me several Monarch Cats. :-) All of them but one have hatched out and flown away. I was kind of hoping that they'd make more cats, but I think I needed to have them leaving their cocoons on the same day so they'd have someone to mate with. Not that I can tell the Male Monarchs from the females, but it only makes sense. The ones that did hatch out, hung around. :-)
I'll try again next spring.
October was an incredibly busy month. The Pumpkin Patch did pretty good, but we do need more pumpkins out for sell next year.
The Farmer's Market is starting out kind of slow, but I'm sure it will acquire more Farmer's in the spring. It has been well received so far.
We've been getting ready for the opening of the tree farm for the Christmas Season tomorrow. It's going to be really intense for the next month. This will be the first year in a long time that I am feeling well enough to work out there for the season. :-)
Okay, for my big news. I broke ground on the BEES gardens. I am working on two flower beds. Right now I mostly have nectar plants planted in the ground. I do have lots of host plant seeds that have either been donated to me, collected or paid for by me that I will be including in the spring time, after they sprout.
I laid out some rocks as a start of a border, here at the entrance to the BEES. Then I dug a hole. This is what you'll see in the first photo. As you can see from the second photo the dirt is primarily sandy/dg in composition. It has never been farmed, and is alluvial in nature, meaning it's washed down and collected in this oxbow where our dry creek is. So I took my shovel and started digging, photo number three. I was pleasantly surprised that it was easy digging, and that the soil still appeared damp under the surface of the ground. The next photo shows how easy it was to dig the holes, because before I knew it I had several dug. I actually dug a total of 10 holes to plant Butterfly bushes in, which is the last photo for this post.
For some reason, I felt driven to get this garden started. I did something very unusual for me. I took some of the money I've been saving, found a local nursery that sells plants for a lot less than the Big Box stores or most nurseries do for that matter. It was a bit of a drive, but DH was really nice and drove me out to pick up that first batch of plants. Now I have an arrangement with the manager that he will deliver to me if he is in the area on another delivery. It really helps to keep down costs.
I purchased the 10 Butterfly Bushes, a dozen red salvia, and 30 Lantana to go into the gardens. I figured I would split the plants up and put equal numbers in both of the garden spaces. I know it's hard to see them when they are mostly still in my head, but that was my plan. I wasn't able to plant right away, and when I was able to get back to them a few days later, I was really sad to find I had been shorted 8 Lantana. I called and talked to the Nursery Manager, and because I didn't get angry with him, for what I felt was an honest mistake, he said he'd deliver the missed plants in a couple of days when he had a delivery already scheduled in my area. It normally costs $60.00 for delivery, and I'd much rather buy plants with that money. I was pretty happy. I actually decided to get some more Lantana, Butterfly Bushes, and just because I like them, I got some Hibiscus too. I know they aren't really a Butterfly Plant, but I am justifying them because I've seen their large blossoms used as feeders for Butterflies. I have to have fresh flower feeders on site don't I?
I need to post some more photos, so I am on to the next post.
WIB~
SW