Many butterfly feeding and breeding grounds have been destroyed because of pesticides and the construction of housing and shopping centers. So creating a butterfly garden will not only attract these beautiful winged creatures to your yard, but can help them flourish again.
Butterflies are easy to attract; you just have to know what they like to eat. Caterpillars eat "larval" plants like milkweed, marigolds, Queen Anne’s lace, and violets. Butterflies like "nectar" plants, like the butterfly bush, the beauty bush, sunflowers, lilacs, snapdragons, and zinnias.
Select plants that are diverse in color and bloom at different times, so you will attract butterflies all summer long. Check with a nursery to see what plants will grow well in your area, and understand that different plants attract different butterflies and caterpillars.
Be sure the area receives five to six hours of sun a day and is sheltered from the wind. Also, a mud puddle in a sunny spot will provide butterflies with other essential salts and nutrients.
Watching these flying flowers flit around your garden is delightful. And the satisfaction of preserving a species by providing a safe habitat is immeasurable.
Provided by guest editor of The Butterfly Gardener's Guide; Claire Hagen Dole
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Friday, March 03, 2006
Wild Gardens - Butterfly Food Requirements
Rather than the chewing mouthparts of immature caterpillars, adult butterflies have sucking mouthparts. The mouthparts are shaped into a long coiled tube, called a proboscis. The adult butterfly can uncoil its proboscis and use it to suck up nectar or tree sap. Plants that adult butterflies use for food are called nectar plants.
Caterpillars or larvae use their chewing mouthparts to eat the leaves and stems of plants, called host plants. Some larvae, like the gypsy moth that feed in great numbers, can completely defoliaste a mature host plant in a matter of days.
Many butterflies have very specific food requirements. Often the host plant for the caterpillar isn’t the same nectar plant for the adult butterfly of the same species. To be a successful butterfly gardener you must provide both the host and nectar plants that the butterfly species in your area prefer to eat.
The lists below give some examples of common host plants for caterpillars and nectar plants for butterflies throughout the United States. Ask your local nursery staff which ones are best suited for your area and climate.
Common Host Plants for Caterpillars:
Common Nectar Plants for Butterflies:
Butterfly Food Requirements
from Dead Daisies Make Me Crazy
by Loren Nancarrow and Janet Hogan Taylor
Caterpillars or larvae use their chewing mouthparts to eat the leaves and stems of plants, called host plants. Some larvae, like the gypsy moth that feed in great numbers, can completely defoliaste a mature host plant in a matter of days.
Many butterflies have very specific food requirements. Often the host plant for the caterpillar isn’t the same nectar plant for the adult butterfly of the same species. To be a successful butterfly gardener you must provide both the host and nectar plants that the butterfly species in your area prefer to eat.
The lists below give some examples of common host plants for caterpillars and nectar plants for butterflies throughout the United States. Ask your local nursery staff which ones are best suited for your area and climate.
Common Host Plants for Caterpillars:
Common Nectar Plants for Butterflies:
Butterfly Food Requirements
from Dead Daisies Make Me Crazy
by Loren Nancarrow and Janet Hogan Taylor
Ornamental Grasses
If I had to choose a favorite group of plants in my garden, it would be the ornamental grasses. Few plants are as versatile, carefree and dynamic as these grasses. And yes, they do flower - and they make wonderful companion plants for flowering perennials. Grasses contribute a contemporary design edge that will jazz up almost any garden. They really deliver on low maintenance and high style. What more could any gardener ask?
Using grasses in the garden
The biggest misconception about grasses
is that they are invasive and will take over your garden. In fact, most grasses sold for home garden and landscape purposes are well-behaved clumping types that won't misbehave. Ornamental grasses are magical because they're never static. They emerge lush green early in the season, and by summer they've filled out and begin to plume or flower. Through the season, they move with the slightest breeze and sound wonderful when the wind rustles through them.
In the fall, you get the later warm season grasses pluming and then changes of color to wheat, gold, flaming orange or copper. The picture (above right) of my front garden shows how gorgeous grasses are throughout the fall. And the wheaten-colored foliage of ornamental grasses still looks attractive all winter. No other plants are as easy to maintain. All you need to do is cut down and clear away the previous year's growth in late winter or early spring.
Ornamental grasses in North American gardens
I first became interested in grasses after seeing magazine articles of gardens designed by Wolfgang Oehme and James van Sweden, of the Baltimore-based landscape architecture firm, Oehme van Sweden. They pioneered a garden style that uses grasses en masse along with perennials. Van Sweden's book, Gardening with Nature, is an excellent guide to this naturalistic style of gardening.
Meanwhile, in Europe, Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf, author of Planting the Natural Garden, was working in a similar theme – planting ornamental grasses and perennials in meadow-like swaths.
This naturalistic style is better suited to the climate and conditions of many parts of North America than the more labor-intensive English perennial border.
When we moved to the country from a city garden, where I had maybe five grasses, I was finally able to indulge my love of these plants and try out the new design ideas. Now ornamental grasses have become the plants that tie all the other plants in my beds together, as shown in the pictures here.
For more information:
How to plant and care for ornamental grasses
FULL SUN GRASSES:
Feather reed grass (Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster')
Try handsome switch grass (Panicum virgatum) cultivars
GRASSES FOR SHADE:
Most of the tall, dramatic grasses do best in full sun, but there are lovely grasses for shade too. Click here for information on grasses for shade.
Gardening book for novice gardeners: Clueless in the Garden Gardening book - Sound growing advice for beginner gardeners from Yvonne Cunnington.
Yvonne Cunnington is a gardener, writer, and photographer. She also leads workshops and frequently speaks on gardening. Her garden writing appears regularly in Chatelaine and Gardening Life and on Icangarden.com . She had gardener small, on a thirty-foot-wide patch, and is now gardening large on ten acres outside Hamilton in southwestern Ontario.
Using grasses in the garden
The biggest misconception about grasses
is that they are invasive and will take over your garden. In fact, most grasses sold for home garden and landscape purposes are well-behaved clumping types that won't misbehave. Ornamental grasses are magical because they're never static. They emerge lush green early in the season, and by summer they've filled out and begin to plume or flower. Through the season, they move with the slightest breeze and sound wonderful when the wind rustles through them.
In the fall, you get the later warm season grasses pluming and then changes of color to wheat, gold, flaming orange or copper. The picture (above right) of my front garden shows how gorgeous grasses are throughout the fall. And the wheaten-colored foliage of ornamental grasses still looks attractive all winter. No other plants are as easy to maintain. All you need to do is cut down and clear away the previous year's growth in late winter or early spring.
Ornamental grasses in North American gardens
I first became interested in grasses after seeing magazine articles of gardens designed by Wolfgang Oehme and James van Sweden, of the Baltimore-based landscape architecture firm, Oehme van Sweden. They pioneered a garden style that uses grasses en masse along with perennials. Van Sweden's book, Gardening with Nature, is an excellent guide to this naturalistic style of gardening.
Meanwhile, in Europe, Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf, author of Planting the Natural Garden, was working in a similar theme – planting ornamental grasses and perennials in meadow-like swaths.
This naturalistic style is better suited to the climate and conditions of many parts of North America than the more labor-intensive English perennial border.
When we moved to the country from a city garden, where I had maybe five grasses, I was finally able to indulge my love of these plants and try out the new design ideas. Now ornamental grasses have become the plants that tie all the other plants in my beds together, as shown in the pictures here.
For more information:
How to plant and care for ornamental grasses
FULL SUN GRASSES:
Feather reed grass (Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster')
Try handsome switch grass (Panicum virgatum) cultivars
GRASSES FOR SHADE:
Most of the tall, dramatic grasses do best in full sun, but there are lovely grasses for shade too. Click here for information on grasses for shade.
Gardening book for novice gardeners: Clueless in the Garden Gardening book - Sound growing advice for beginner gardeners from Yvonne Cunnington.
Yvonne Cunnington is a gardener, writer, and photographer. She also leads workshops and frequently speaks on gardening. Her garden writing appears regularly in Chatelaine and Gardening Life and on Icangarden.com . She had gardener small, on a thirty-foot-wide patch, and is now gardening large on ten acres outside Hamilton in southwestern Ontario.
Monday, February 27, 2006
Excerpt from Clueless in the Garden: How to get started
From Chapter I of Clueless in the Garden
You look out the window and there it is: Your bare, neglected, overgrown (circle the one that applies) yard yawns before you.
Visions of perennial borders, sun-ripened tomatoes, and fragrant flowering shrubs tempt you, but you know that anything you plant is doomed — you weren't around the day they passed out the green thumbs.
Even if you knew what to plant — and that's a big enough hurdle — you wouldn't know where, how, or when. And as for that weedy, compacted, tree-root-infested, muddy — or dusty — dirt you've got, won't any plant just turn up its toes anyway? Besides, isn't it a lot of work?
Well, yes, work is a four-letter word — but you can have a garden and a life too, and no, it's not too late to grow a green thumb.
Actually, as one of my favorite garden wits, the acerbic Henry Mitchell, once put it, "There are no green thumbs or black thumbs. There are only gardeners and non-gardeners. Gardeners are the ones who ruin after ruin get on with the high defiance of nature herself, creating, in the very face of her chaos and tornado, the bower of roses and the pride of irises."
So relax, take a deep breath; help has arrived. No, I'm not coming over to help you dig your flower beds — I've got my own garden, thank you very much —
but this book is the next best thing. Stay with it to
find out what you need to know.
But don't get too hung up on to-do lists. The main reason starter gardeners fail has less to do with being clueless than with the fact that they don't pay enough attention to their gardens.
Yes, you need to know the how, why, and when stuff — but even more important, you need to get outside. That way, you're more likely to notice if the seedlings are getting parched or something's been chewing your favorite shrub or that Vigorous New Perennial is overtaking everything in sight.
Noticing these things while there's still time to do something about them is one of the keys to success. And the more time you spend in the garden, the sooner you'll figure out what works for you and what doesn't.
No, this doesn't mean moving into the garden shed during the growing season. Just pay your garden a visit several times a week and really look at what's going on — what's growing well, what needs a nip and a tuck, and, oh, better pull out that weed right now before it goes to seed.
As for the work part, I call it "playing in the garden." Self-deception? I don't think so.
Gardening should be fun — it's really creative play. There's enormous pleasure to be had growing things and putting good-looking plants together — gardening is a bit like matchmaking, you know.
And what's wrong with losing a few pounds digging? I'd rather burn calories while getting a chance to smell the flowers and watch robins splash in the birdbath than on a dreary treadmill at the gym.
From Clueless in the Garden (Key Porter Books, 2003)
© Clueless in the Garden, Yvonne Cunnington, 2003
Clueless in the Garden - Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Rolling Up Your Sleeves
How to Get Started
Tools of the Trade
Make Yourself Comfortable
Chapter 2: Climate Control: Gardening Where You Live
Come Sun, Come Wind, Come Rain
A Hardy Plant is Good to Find
Which Way Does the Sun Shine?
Is Your Soil on Acid? Soil pH
Before You Get Out Your Spade...
Chapter 3: Breaking Ground: Soil 101
Checking Out Your Soil
Making Your Bed
Black Magic: Making Compost for Your Garden
Much Ado About Mulching
To Fertilize or Not to Fertilize?
Chapter 4: Getting Your Feet Wet - Water-Wise Gardening
Giving Plants What They Need—Without Wasting Water
The Better Way: Soaker Hoses
First Things First: Watering Priorities
Why Plants Love Rainwater
Chapter 5: What's in a Name? Botanical Names in a Nutshell
Last Name First: Genus and Species
So, What’s a Cultivar?
Attention: Plant Crossing
Chapter 6: Bringing Home the Green - When and Where to Buy
How Ornamental Plants Are Sold
Home, James: Transporting Your Purchases
Buying by Mail Order or Online
Chapter 7: Home Turf - Lawns and Lawn Alternatives
Mow, Mow, Mow Your Lawn
Break the Deep Watering Rule
Give Your Lawn a Boost
Starting a Lawn from Scratch
Lawn Alternatives: A Case for Ground Covers
Another Kind of Ground Cover: A Prairie
Chapter 8: Color Your World - Planting a Flower Garden
Your Paint Box: The Plants
Arranging Flowers in Your Garden
Ready, Set, Plant
The Well-Groomed Flower Garden
Divide and Conquer
Flower Garden Tune-up
Chapter 9: Made for the Shade - When Your Garden Doesn't Get Much Sun
The Secrets of Shade Garden Soil
Planting Your Shady Garden
Light By Degrees
Leaves of Shade
Queen of the Shade: Heavenly Hosta
Coping with Dry Shade
Chapter 10: The Big Picture - Trees, Shrubs, and Vines
So Many Trees, So Little Space!
Choosing Compatible Trees and Shrubs
When to Plant Trees and Shrubs
Shopping Checklist
Ready, Set, Plant
Prescription for the Care and Feeding of New Trees and Shrubs
Pruning 101: A Clip in Time Saves Nine
Up, Up, and Away: Climbing Vines
Chapter 11: Taste Buds - Growing Good Stuff to Eat
KISS Your Veggie Patch
Veggie Garden Basics
Avoiding the Dreaded Zucchini Syndrome
Tips on Harvesting
You Say Tomato...
Want Your Own Asparagus Patch?
Spice Up Your Garden With Herbs
Chapter 12: Pot Luck - The Joys of Container Gardening
Choosing Containers: Au natural Is Best
Spice Up Your Planting
The Container Plant Hit List
No Soil?
Ready, Set, Plant
Keeping Them Growing
To Keep or Not to Keep?
Chapter 13: The Yuck Factor - Weeds, Pests, and Diseases
Weedy Matters
A Cure for What Bugs You
Remedies for Sick Plants
Oh Deer, Oh Deer
Chapter 14: To Everything There Is a Season - What to Do When
Early Spring
Mid to Late Spring
Early Summer Midsummer
Early Fall
Mid to Late Fall
Winter
Chapter 15: Mission Possible - From Ho-hum Yard to Glorious Garden
It Takes More Than Plants
Getting to Know Your Garden Patch
Hiring a Landscape Pro
Gardening Terms: Hort-Speak Demystified
Resources: More Help for the New Gardener
From Clueless in the Garden (Key Porter Books, 2003)
© Clueless in the Garden, Yvonne Cunnington, 2003
CLUELESS IN THE GARDEN Buy Online
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Easter Lilies, and the Number One Gardening Question Right Now?
Everybody asks about Easter lilies! Can they go outside; can I plant them in my garden? And to this I reply, "Why not?" Like other bulbs, there are two options if you plant your leftover Easter lily bulbs - either they will live and flower for many years (it is perfectly hardy into zone 4) or they will immediately die. If you don't plant the bulb, it will definitely die. So you have nothing to lose by planting.
Once the Easter lily bloom has faded in the house, cut the stem back as far as you can. Grow the plant in a sunny windowsill, keeping it moist (not sopping) and feed weekly with houseplant food. After all danger of frost has passed wherever you live, you can plant it outdoors. Planting outdoors is as easy as digging a hole and planting so that the top of the bulb will be three inches below the surface.
Add a shovel of compost and a shovel of peat moss to the planting hole and ensure the soil is well loosened. Remember it is necessary to dig a large enough hole to spread the lily roots out and to ensure it is at least eighteen inches from another plant. Place the bulb in the bottom of the planting hole and backfill the soil up to the neck of the bulb – do not cover the green leaves. Covering the green leaves at this time could rot them.
Wait until the leaves have turned yellow and faded before totally filling in the hole. After you've planted the bulb, water it thoroughly. Carefully water and turn the area into a mud hole so no air spaces are left around the bulb. The original foliage may die back immediately after planting. If this happens, cut the foliage right back to the bulb and then backfill the hole. Do not be surprised to see a new set of leaves emerge from the hole. Water thoroughly after back filling.
The key to success with growing Easter lilies is to give the tops full sun but to shade the roots. Hot tops and cold feet would describe this growing condition. Also, excellent drainage is essential for bulb success. Poor drainage or clay soils will rot the bulb over winter because of excessive moisture.
Remember the normal time for the lily to bloom is mid-summer. The first planting year you may see a bloom in mid-summer but the likelihood is that the bulb will wait for next year to bloom again. Your job is to grow the bulb. Do not cut off leaves until they are well faded and quite yellow. Do not pin them up so other plants can grow next to the lily. You want those leaves to stretch out and absorb as much sunlight as possible because they are feeding the bulb and making next year's flower bud.
And next year's Easter lily bulb is what you're looking for, and the one after that, and the one after that too.
copyright Doug Green 2005
Want to ask Doug Green a gardening question? www.aksme@simplegiftsfarm.com
Once the Easter lily bloom has faded in the house, cut the stem back as far as you can. Grow the plant in a sunny windowsill, keeping it moist (not sopping) and feed weekly with houseplant food. After all danger of frost has passed wherever you live, you can plant it outdoors. Planting outdoors is as easy as digging a hole and planting so that the top of the bulb will be three inches below the surface.
Add a shovel of compost and a shovel of peat moss to the planting hole and ensure the soil is well loosened. Remember it is necessary to dig a large enough hole to spread the lily roots out and to ensure it is at least eighteen inches from another plant. Place the bulb in the bottom of the planting hole and backfill the soil up to the neck of the bulb – do not cover the green leaves. Covering the green leaves at this time could rot them.
Wait until the leaves have turned yellow and faded before totally filling in the hole. After you've planted the bulb, water it thoroughly. Carefully water and turn the area into a mud hole so no air spaces are left around the bulb. The original foliage may die back immediately after planting. If this happens, cut the foliage right back to the bulb and then backfill the hole. Do not be surprised to see a new set of leaves emerge from the hole. Water thoroughly after back filling.
The key to success with growing Easter lilies is to give the tops full sun but to shade the roots. Hot tops and cold feet would describe this growing condition. Also, excellent drainage is essential for bulb success. Poor drainage or clay soils will rot the bulb over winter because of excessive moisture.
Remember the normal time for the lily to bloom is mid-summer. The first planting year you may see a bloom in mid-summer but the likelihood is that the bulb will wait for next year to bloom again. Your job is to grow the bulb. Do not cut off leaves until they are well faded and quite yellow. Do not pin them up so other plants can grow next to the lily. You want those leaves to stretch out and absorb as much sunlight as possible because they are feeding the bulb and making next year's flower bud.
And next year's Easter lily bulb is what you're looking for, and the one after that, and the one after that too.
copyright Doug Green 2005
Want to ask Doug Green a gardening question? www.aksme@simplegiftsfarm.com
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