The Butterfly Garden

butterflies in the compost.  fall of 2012

Late last fall my beautiful man and I noticed hoards and swarms and legions of butterflies in our compost.  I found a "Bring Home the Butterflies" seed mix at a local garden center and sprinkled them during the winter.  I have to admit to checking the area anxiously and often despite the viciously cold winter.  Ok, it wasn't all that cold but we didn't really have a winter at all last year and I got spoiled.

little baby butterfly garden

The seed packet boasts 28 kinds of flowers but so far I've only seen a few.  Maybe they come up and bloom at different rates.  Or maybe I seeded them too close together and the bigger plants are choking out the smaller ones.  We'll see.  The earliest plants to come up were so cute and little.  At last our butterflies would have their own area to feed on.  But there are no butterflies yet.

a bee at work.  i got in close.  i didn't zoom!

We didn't even notice the last few weeks as the plants got bigger and bigger.  Not only did they start to grow and bloom beautifully but the garden started to expand as well.  I started noticing a bee or two feeding on the flowers but no butterflies.  Eventually I decided to get brave.  I'm afraid of bees but I really want a couple of hives.  I want the honey to help with my allergies and I want to help the bees.  Did you realize that every third bite of food consumed is thanks to bees?  And they're vanishing.  Poor bees.  They work so hard for us and they're dying off.  I want to help them.  So I've put a chair next to the butterfly (and bee) garden.  Every day I spend a few minutes sitting there watching them work.  There are more of them now.  I used to see one or two a day.  Today I saw 6 bees, yesterday there were 8.  I'm doing better at sitting still to watch them too. 

crimson clover?

New types of flowers are finally starting to show up and I'm looking up the flowers listed on the packet and trying to match them up.  I found a little red flower that might be crimson clover.  It's a pretty cute little flower.

my bee watching chair

Now I realize that you may be wondering what butterflies and bees and inedible flowers have to do with sustenance.  As I mentioned, bees are responsible for every third bite of food.  They pollinate and help our plants grow more food.  Butterflies work the same.  We've only just started to see them.  I think in the few hours we were outside yesterday we saw 3 butterflies and caterpillar.  The weather is finally starting to warm up so we should be seeing more soon.  The seeds sprinkled on the opposite side of the compost are starting to come up right next to the trumpet vine.  Once I replace the passion flower that didn't survive the winter we'll have almost one whole side of the yard attracting butterflies and bees.  All of this butterfly goodness surrounds the square foot gardens where our tomatoes, peppers, and all our other food will be helped by their happy feeding.

butterfly garden

butterfly garden

borage

butterfly garden