Tag: butterfly gardening

May 15: lilac, salvia, and working from the garden

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It was warm enough today that I was able to take my laptop outside and work from the garden. Before I settled down with my afternoon coffee and the rest of the day’s work, I took a walk around the garden to check on what’s coming in and what’s blooming.

Dwarf lilac in bloom. It only has this one flower cluster this year.
The yarrow is almost there. Any day now and its flowers will be yellow as buttercups.
Salvia so fresh and pretty 😍
Volunteer dill coming up out back. I’m always happy to see dill come back. I love it with salmon. The swallowtails love it, too.

May 3: buds and butterflies

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The sun shone bright today and the temperature reached 80℉. I saw multiple butterflies skitter through the garden: a swallowtail, a monarch, a cabbage butterfly, and an American Painted Lady that actually stopped for a drink.

American Painted Lady on salvia

The salvia and a couple of other herbs are blooming now — rosemary and thyme — while everything else begins to bud. This is always an exciting time that makes me walk the garden and check on everything’s progress every day.

Rosemary in bloom
Thyme in bloom
Yarrow buds
Sage buds
Dianthus in bloom
Scabiosa bud
Volunteer milkweed
Mexican feather grasses (foreground) are my favorite 😍. I hope these to fill in more.

Sep 7: State of the Garden, plus new goldenrod and mums

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I wanted to spruce up the garden since many of the summer flowers are starting to fade.

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New goldenrod and mature red mums

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Little bluestem grass and Mexican feathergrass

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New mums and goldenrod

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Monarch caterpillar

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New goldenrod

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Swallowtail caterpillars on rue

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Monarch caterpillar with aphids and milkweed seeds

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Left and middle back beds

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Right back bed

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Front bed

Aug 18: lazy day in the butterfly garden

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After working in the garden all day in the heat yesterday, today I’ve spent most of the day laying in the hammock or sitting in one of my three garden-viewing perches, admiring the filled-in beds, photographing butterflies (and a hummingbird!), and watching monarchs and swallowtails lay eggs on the milkweed and rue. It’s a pretty awesome way to spend a Sunday.

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Swallowtail laying eggs on rue

 

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Echinacea and sedum are pretty together

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Joe Pye weed, rue, and sedum (and a swallowtail caterpillar on the rue in the bottom left 🙂 )

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Mexican sunflower

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Painted Lady on butterfly bush

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Hummingbird! I heard its wings thrum while I was trying to photograph a monarch on the zinnias (see lower right corner). This is the first time I’ve ever come close to photographing a hummingbird.

I saw a buckeye butterfly yesterday too, but I didn’t have my camera so I wasn’t able to photograph it. Buckeyes are gorgeous. I’m going to go back out again now with my book and see what else comes to the garden.