Butterfly Garden Plants

There are many plants that will attract butterflies to your garden. Today I'm listing the plants in my garden that were planted to attract butterflies, and I'm also including some of my "wish-list" plants for future years . These plants seem to do well in our hot climate and aren't too difficult to keep happy.

If you're planning your own butterfly garden, or looking to add to it, keep in mind that most of these plants do well in full sun (with the exception of impatiens). Now is a good time to add some of these perennial plants and annuals to your garden. I'm still working on this myself. Most of the plants pictured were planted recently, and some more are waiting in flats, ready to be planted today.

Also listed are trees and shrubs, although keep in mind these are probably best planted in the fall.

Finally, remember that butterflies are insects, so insecticide will kill them! Avoid use of any nasty chemical insecticides. Biological controls are recommeneded, although I haven't tried this yet myself. Insecticidal soaps are less harmful, but I use this only on the roses (which tend to attract bees, not butterflies).

Perennial plants
Lantana

Verbena


















Not pictured: chives, daylily, hibiscus, sage

To add in the future: Milkweed, Bee-balm, Black-eyed susan, Butterfly weed, coneflower, phlox


Trees and Shrubs

Redbud























Buddleia ("the butterfly bush"; the #1 attraction in my yard)


















To add in the future: Blueberry, Abelia


Annual plants

Impatiens


















Zinnia and Verbena



















Not pictured: Cosmos


Food plants for catepillars


Fennel (dill, carrots, and other plants in this family will work, too)

















Not pictured: Dogwood, Parsley, Oaks, Tulip Tree, Snapdragon

To add in the future: Milkweed, Asters

For more information:
Clemson University Extension's on-line publications on Butterfly Gardening, Annuals, and Perennials.
Why flowers come in colors
So a butterfly flew into a bar...

Coming soon: Gardening to attract other animals, like bumblebees and hummingbirds

South Carolina- It's Planting Time!

The official time to start your annuals in Zone 7, determined by the last frost date, is April 15th. Like most gardeners, however, I started a little earlier than that this year. I call it the global warming fudge factor, but really it's more to do with my impatience than any scientific justification.

In early April, I set out some tomato plants, which actually came from the hydroponics experiment I did with my classes back in January. Dreaming of some tomato caprese, I also sowed seeds for basil and oregano, and these little seedlings are coming along nicely.

There's still plenty left for me to do, however. This weekend is my official planting date. The local master gardening group is having a plant sale this weekend, the stores are overflowing with beautiful plants, and most importantly, today was the end of classes for the spring term. After being stuck inside grading papers and writing finals day and night for the last week, I'm ready to get outside and get digging.

So what will I plant? My focus this year will be getting in some perennials to attract butterflies, birds, and other critters. They are picky about what flowers they visit, as I mentioned in my "Why Flowers Come in Colors" post. The Clemson University Extension has a great deal of information on Butterfly Gardening, and I'll be looking for some of their suggested plants when I'm shopping tomorrow.

Must-see South Carolina Gardens: Edisto Gardens of Orangeburg, SC

Hard to believe that this beautiful place was once the site of a landfill! Since the 1920's the land has been gradually converted to the lovely Edisto Memorial Gardens of Orangeburg, SC.

Some unique features:

Testing ground for the All American Rose Selection process
Long boardwalk through a Tupelo/Cypress Wetland
Sensory garden complete with botanical markers in Braille

You can visit the city's webpage to find out more about the Edisto Memorial Gardens.

A new meme

I was recently tagged by Stuart (see Gardening for Dummies in my updated blogroll). I like the last question expecially, "Why do you blog?" I'm not officially tagging anyone, but please if you're reading this post, answer that question in the comments!

4 Jobs I've had in My Life
1. Pizza delivery
2. Walmart cashier
3. Research Assistant
4. Science Teacher

4 Movies I Could Watch Over and Over
1. Groundhog Day
2. Drop Dead Gorgeous
3. Greenfingers
4. Charley and the Chocolate Factory (the original)

4 Websites I Visit Regularly
1. My favorite blogs and statcounter
2. Netflix
3. CNN.com
4. On-line banking

Favorite Foods
1. Cheeseburger, cheddar or blue cheese crumbles
2. Snickerdoodles (cinnamon-sugar cookies)
3. Thai Green Curry with Chicken and Veggies
4. Anything chocolate

4 Places I Would Rather Be Right Now
1. Hiking somewhere with my hubby here in beautiful upstate SC
2. Visiting friends and family back in the Midwest
3. Enjoying the beach and wilderness of Hawaii
4. The bike trails of Jekyll Island, GA

4 Books I could read over and over
1. Native Tongue
2. Holiday on Ice
3. The telephonebook-sized Orthos guide to Gardening
4. Dave Barry’s Guide to Life

4 Songs I Could Listen to Over and Over
1. “My Front Porch Looking In” Lonestar
2. Almost anything performed by Charles Mingus
3. “Darlin’ Corey” –performed by Bruce Hornsby and Ricky Scaggs
4. “It’s a Great Day to be Alive” Travis Tritt


4 Reasons Why I Blog
To meet new people
To learn about anything and everything
To enjoy writing and the creative process
To more fully live life by reflecting on it

Earth Friendly Gardening

Happy Earth Day!

This picture was from Sonia's post about the Earth as Art exhibit that was previously at the Library of Congress. She has more great pictures on her blog, so it's worth a visit.

Lena Delta, Asia

In honor of Earth Day, I'd like to propose an impromptu Carnival of Earth Friendly Gardening.

How do you show your concern for the Earth in how you garden?

This week, I noticed Jenn and Judith posted a notice about the environmental impact of cypress mulches. I appreciate the heads-up, since I was totally clueless about this issue. They also suggest other mulching alternatives. I'd like to point out that mulching is actually great for the environment, just choose a different kind of mulch. The environmental benefits of mulching include reduced erosion and water conservation, since the mulch holds the water and prevents runoff.

Susan continues to write about lectures on invasive plants and their impact on the environment. The basic message is grow native plants as much as possible. My recent post, Plant Spam, proposes a new name for invasives.

Amy and Andrea continue to promote their organic perspective. But isn't neccessarily all or nothing when it comes to organic gardening. Even gardeners like myself who occasionally pull out the Miracle Grow can incorporate organic practices in their gardening. In fact, you probably already do. Remember if you build a compost pile you are not only helping your garden, but also helping the environment. Did you know that one of the largest components our landfills is yard waste? Compost is also a natural mulch and fertilizer, which is better for the environment than synthetic chemicals. I recently also starting using soap sprays to deter insects instead of pesticides. Now that I'm almost 4 months pregnant, I'm starting to seriously consider how to cut down on toxins that my future child could be exposed to.

On aol they just posted an article entitled "Green Yards" describing ways to conserve when caring for your lawn. A few interesting ideas included solar powered lawn mowers and renting goats to mow your lawn! My husband's former company actually found it cost-effective to raise a herd of goats instead of mowing their lawn.

I'd like to wrap up with a quote from Susan - "I remain confused as hell but unshaken in my belief that gardening can be not only [not] harmful but actually beneficial to the environment." I second that comment! The more you read about any environmental issue, the complexity of the problem becomes apparent, and thus the more confusing it gets. But we can only do our best!

So please share your ideas and any favorite posts I missed. I'll be glad to add them. Just comment on this post or send a link to my e-mail with "Carnival of Earth Friendly Gardening" in the title.

Pansy Power

I just love pansies. The novelty of growing flowers in the winter hasn't worn off yet, and now they are especially beautiful in their spring growth spurt.

Soon it will get too hot and I'll have to replace them with heat-tolerant annuals for part sun. Any ideas? I was thinking maybe petunias.

I really need to start watching the weather report...

We had a hot,dry day yesterday, and I didn't make it home till late. Concerned about how the perrenials I'd recently planted would fare after another hot day, I immediately got out the hose . Once again I was gardening in the dark. My behavior was based on a weather report I'd read over the weekend, approximately 4 days ago.

Well, this morning it was pouring down rain by the time I got to work. By the way, I had also planned an outdoor fieldtrip for the 8 AM lab section of the intro biology course. I would have been totally unprepared, except last week we did an interesting indoor lab in the environmental science class , and I'd been too lazy to put everything away yet, so we had a ready-made back-up activity. Laziness really pays off sometimes.

By 11 AM, it looked like it was clearing up, so I walked across campus for a meeting and left my umbrella in my office. You can probably guess what happened. My jacket is about to go in the dryer.

Well I'm watching the weather report now, and hopefully the thunder storms will stay at bay for a tree walk with the environmental science course tomorrow afternoon. Yesterday, a retired biology professor gave me a tour around campus and I brushed up on my trees. A new one I learned is Redbud, which is an interesting tree since it's a legume, yet doesn't have the typical compound leaves. I've seen this tree in the woods around Georgia and we also have one planted in our front yard, and I've been wondering what in the heck it was, so another botanical mystery is now solved for me.



Time to open another botanical mystery case- Why are these trees called Redbuds? Cat pointed out recently that Redbuds have purple flowers, and also purple finches are red. Hmmmmm....

Well, the nice thing about storms is that it forces me indoors to read these types of insightful blog posts . And April showers bring May flowers!May flowers!

Resurrection Fern for Resurrection Day

Apparently a religion professor went on quite a rant about Easter today, and my students were still talking about it during lab. He said Christians should dump the term Easter, since it's named after a Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, and call it Resurrection Day instead.

After further research and reflection, I was disillusioned in the realization that all the fun parts of Easter, humorously listed earlier this week on Neil's Easter vs. Passover post, have really nothing to do with Christianity. Everything from the Easter bunny to egg coloring was adopted from previous religions.

And while we're talking about the irrelevance of Easter traditions, what does the Easter Lily have to do with Easter? This lily is a perennial and comes back every year, but so do half a million other garden plants. And the Easter Lily is a native to Japan! As far as I can tell, it just happens to bloom at the right time.

I propose that the Resurrection Fern should be adopted as the Resurrection Day / Easter plant. Wouldn't that be more symbolic? You could let your fern dry out on Good Friday, then before you go to bed on Saturday night, mist the fern with water. Then on Easter Sunday, it's back from the dead!

Well if you must have your Easter lily, remember that you can plant it outside after the blooms have faded. They should bloom again the next year, in June or July.

Hobby Greenhouses

One of my long-term dreams has been to have a little greenhouse to fill up with my favorite tender tropical plants. For the past couple years I've been pinching pennies and saving Benjamins, and now it's time to make serious plans! Today I'll report on some of the many options out there, and I'd love anyone's input in the comments.

The Materials
My ideal greenhouse would have an aluminum metal frame with glass. Glass would allow for lovely views, and the heating bill would be similar to the high-tech plastics offered on the market. The drawback of glass is the possibility of breakages, and glass tends to be more expensive. If I decide to go plastic, polycarbonate is ideal for its high Rf value, meaning it holds heat well.

The Kits
I've read the forums extensively in GardenWeb, and the readers there seem obsessed with the Harbor Freight model. If you want something simple, you can't beat the price. For my purposes, it's a little small and not as aesthetically pleasing as I'd like.


The 8x10 MiniPro offers more room and a glass-like clarity from single-layer polycarbonate. With going single layer instead of double layer, though, you do lose some of the heat-retention properties.

The high-end option is the Grand Hideaway. With tempered glass and a 12 x 13 size option, this is the most aesthetically pleasing option.

Greenhouse Accessories
The biggest expenditure is the greenhouse structure itself, but I've also been budgeting for all the accessories. I've yet to do some comparison shopping on these, but for now I've compiled a list of must-have accessories:

Heating system and thermostat (including humidity monitoring)
Fans and Automated vent shutters (at least two)
Lighting (Fluorescent shop lights, add sodium lights if needed)
Hose with extended spray head
Shade Cloth to prevent overheating
Floor covering (concrete)
Solid Benches
Pea Gravel to cover benches
Computer-controlled venting and heating system
Automatic watering and misting system (type to be determined)

Good News

You know you might be a garden geek when....

.....you see your unborn child’s heartbeat for the first time, and your first comment is, “Wow, it’s beating so fast, like a little hummingbird…or a gerbil"

Come see our baby's first glamour shot on my baby blog.

Lotus the Garden Cat

Finally, the cat I named after a flower is living up to his name. Lately, Lotus has been following me out to the garden. While I weed and water, he helps out by munching away at the crab grass in the flower beds. Although he's usually an indoor cat, he seems to enjoy some limited time outside.

I'm glad to find a new way of bonding with Lotus. Although I named him, he has always shown a clear favoritism towards his father.

But as we adopted more cats, the tables were turned. We also have another cat who spends every night on my side of the bed. And if he ends up alone somewhere in the house, he'll whine until he locates me . Ironically, his name is Bimmer. You can probably guess who named our cat Bimmer. Yes, my husband the car freak.





By the way, if you love cats, you would probably enjoy Cat Stories by James Herriot. I just discovered this gem at the local library. I had read "All Creatures Great and Small" when I was fairly young, back when I wanted to be a vet. Herriot tells stories of his career as a country vet in England, around the time antibiotics were discovered. Imagining a time before antibiotics is just mindboggling to me.