If you are on the fence about starting a garden in 2021, and have watched all your neighbors jump into growing everything under the sun, then read the following guest post from Carrie Spencer of TheSpensersAdventures. The images are property of TheGardenDiaries. Gardening can seem intimidating when you’re just starting out. Fortunately, most plants are …
Continue reading "How to Get Started Gardening (Without a Green Thumb)"
One of the most beautiful flowers, both in flower and seed pod, as well as great importance to wildlife, has been relegated to the roadside for years and virtually ignored. Asclepias syriaca, or common milkweed, is struggling and harder to find because wild areas are disappearing and roadsides are regularly mown. "Familiarity breeds contempt" is a common saying and …
Continue reading "Milkweed Chronicles"
Twelve years ago the U.S. Senate’s unanimous approval and designation of a week in June as “National Pollinator Week”, marked a necessary step toward addressing the urgent issue of declining pollinator populations. Pollinator Week has now grown into an international celebration of the valuable ecosystem services provided by bees, birds, butterflies, bats and beetles. The …
Continue reading "Plant Three Pollinator Plants for National Pollinator Week 2019"
Visitors looking over my garden in the fall, always ask what the strange-looking plant is that is forming large hairy pods. Growing in my veggie garden, because of the amount of space the plants take, my Gymnocarpus physocarpa, or "Hairy Balls" are a conversation starter. A Milkweed family member, another common name is Balloon Plant. …
Continue reading "“Hairy Balls”- A Different Kind of Milkweed"
Milkweed, an ignored plant of the road side, is making a comeback with gardeners and people concerned with the environment. A fascinating plant valuable to many insects, including the Monarch, is essential to providing food and shelter for many animals and insects.
The last stage of Monarch raising is the most magical-transforming into a butterfly! This generation of butterfly will make the 3000 mile journey to Mexico of California.
Raising Monarchs inside to observe their incredible transformation is simple if you have a good supply of Milkweed and an easy to make enclosure made out of a tomato cage.
Raising Monarch Butterflies inside can be a fascinating activity for kids and adults. Milkweed and a few supplies is all you need to get started.
