How about sharing some of your butterfly garden pictures? Looking back on a good gardening year.
I love tropicals, annuals, perennials, Texas native plants, and anything I can get my hands on.
They are not the best quality pictures, but still, I hope that someone enjoys them.
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Your 2nd photo is lovely.
Not a new bed for me but I was amazed at the butterflies that were drawn to the Echinacea bed this spring. Perhaps even more delightful because it was in the spring. I usually see a lot of butterflies in later summer/fall.
This is a distance shot of it....
Sorry didn't mean to interupt your posts...
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Lovely podster, I have a hard time growing Echinacea. I bought some new orange and white ones last year but they all died. I will try again this year with new soil. love your pictures and don't mind being interrupted as that I am a slow typist.
wow ......... I was going to post a pic or two of mine, but am afraid that it would not compare to yours !! ........this will be my beds second season though so I am hopeful!!
I still had lots of butterflies though :o)
james t
Placenciarita, your garden is beautiful, thank you for the pictures.
Try the plain old purple cone flowers, they are the best, and the butterflies are crazy about them.
Podster, those butterflies are gorgeous, they bring such joy, don't they?
James, please post all your pictures, all gardens are works of art, whether large or small, and we all have to start somewhere.
Josephine.
Very beautiful ~ I don't have the amazing variety of butterfly plants that you do Placenciarita but I will agree with Frostweed that the plain old fashioned coneflower is the easiest and most hardy. Should you want seeds, I can deliver! The plants are perennial and my beds grew so full as I let them reseed as well.
I did find the fall butterflies were drawn to a number of the blooming annuals that I had. Unfortunately the only photos I had of these were closeups of the butterflies. They certainly aren't color coordinated ~ LOL
poster, I have never traded because I don't really have anything to trade...yet.
Would be glad to send SAE for a few seeds of coneflower. This is year #4 coming up and I am once again moving and expanding. Trying to get rid of all the grass.
James, I second what frostweed said, all gardens are beautiful. Please post your pictures.
Here is a picture of a morning glory vine that I rescued from a construction site.
LouC ~ you got it! If anyone else would like seed, please ask. I harvested a lot this year.
Podster, I will love to trade for some of your coneflowers seeds. I did have a few but they did not come back, I have lots of those big yellow perennial hibiscus flowers and senna seeds to trade if you like those.
I could never get my butterflys to stay put to get their picture taken. I am just too slow.
oh ok ........... :o) .........I will start with the beginning ........ and then some thru the first year shots ......... it started as part of our front yard, which was covered in bermuda grass ..... this bed was actually started right around the first of July, which would normally be a ridiculous idea because of the heat by then. However last year was atypical, we had so much rain ....... Marble Falls actually had 19 inches in one night ..... it caused a serious flood in the area. that it how I can remember the time of year.
This bed was one that I found at the Better Homes and Gardens website.
so here goes :o)
On the butterfly photos, I don't think it is because of slow...LOL My camera is SLOW! I learned to be careful not to block the sun. Don't cast a shadow on them... it seems they take a chill easily. On these coneflowers, they totally ignored me. I could stand still and they would light right in front of me.
then the plants went in :o)
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these were from later in the year as the plants matured ........
Good work James.
some of the plants that the garden plan called fro were unavailable so I improvised :o) ...........this year I am going to plant more closely to the plan .........some of the ones that I did not have I am going to try and plant from seeds!!
thank you Frostweed :o) .............
this bed being brand new was basically insect free .......... thus there were no predator insects........ the monarchs were using the milkweed as a nursery ...........because it was (in the beginning) predator free ....... I had monarch caterpillars at one time all over the milkweed ........counting at one time at least ten caterpillars !!
but als the predators found the cats and thus ended eutopia !!
but it was great while it lasted !!
jataylor, The most impressive picture for me is the first one. Getting your soil done right is important. I like the shape and how organized your garden is. What are the other plants that you are going to plant this year?
James, I am not anyone to ever ask a question of just an observation that took me by pleasant surprise last year. I have parsley growing in a very large container and lo and behold, it was covered in Monarch cats. I will be growing twice as much this year and it is so easy..just pitch out the seed, water a little and there you have it...another host plant.
yes Lou the bhg plan calls for parsley ....... i learned last season that this was why ........I will have parsley in this bed this year .......
Great job, keep those butterflies coming.
Another herbal plant the cats love ( not sure which cats ) is dill ~ Anethum graveolens. It is easy to start from seed or set out small plants and is a ferny, pretty addition to a flower bed. It will also reseed. Tasty to nibble on too...
placenciarita,
that was a chore in itself ........ that yard is mostly clay ....... so I added decayed granite gravel from the side of the street where the city had laid new water pipes, sandy loam from my neighbors dirt pile and then miracle grow garden soil ......... I still felt like I needed to add more, but got tired.
then I bought two tubs of night crawlers and added them as well !!!
This message was edited Jan 13, 2008 11:11 AM
Excellent amendments James, soil preparation is extremely important.
learned that from Daves Garden :o) .........isn't this place neat !!
james t
Yes it is, I love Dave's Garden and most of all the wonderful people who are the heart and soul of it.
This is the only good picture i have. Missed out on alot of really better ones by not having my camera. Jerry
What a great closeup of the Hibiscus bloom and that delightful butterfly.
