Butterfly Festival 2012

After spending the morning at the Farmers Market of the Ozarks, I spent a few hours in the afternoon volunteering in the "Caterpillar Petting Zoo" at the 4th annual Friends of the Garden Butterfly Festival! The event included activities such as butterfly gardening and photography workshops, tours of the Dr. Bill Roston Native Butterfly House, a butterfly release, live music, vendors...

I took along ten very active and friendly pipevine swallowtail caterpillars who seemed to somewhat enjoy being "petted."  Some visitors were a little more serious and reluctant that others to touch, but most warmed up to the idea of a squirmy caterpillar crawling on them...

This is such a great educational event for young children, and I enjoyed talking to other volunteers who get as excited as I do over finding a native host plant on your property or spotting a new butterfly visitor to your garden!

For more info on the Butterfly Festival and the Dr. Bill Roston Native Butterfly House, click here:  Friends of the Garden

Tagging Monarchs...

Last Saturday was a perfect day...
The weather was sunny and warm (70+ degrees) and there was a great turn out for one of my favorite events--tagging Monarchs...


The event was organized (in conjunction with Monarch Watch) by one of the gardening organizations I belong to, Friends of the Gardens, and held at the Dr. Bill Roston Native Butterfly House.  Monarch Watch is an organization dedicated to creating, conserving and protecting milkweed and monarch habitats..

The North American Monarch is the only insect that migrates south and hibernates.  Each year/season, four generations are born.  The first three generations live about two to four weeks, but the 4th generation migrates to the warmer climates of Mexico and California then returns to North America in the spring, living a total of six to eight months and traveling close to 2500 miles.  Monarch Watch developed the tagging program to associate the location of capture with the point of recovery for each butterfly. The data from these tagged butterflies is used to determine the pathway taken by the migrating Monarchs and also the influence of weather, the survival rate, etc...  From my location in Springfield, Missouri, the butterfly will have to travel 1600 miles to their roosting sites on the Oyamel trees in Mexico. Along this journey they will be passing through the scorched dry land of Texas--with very little nectar and water sources available, the survival rate may be lower than previous years...


In addition to the obstacles that the Monarch butterflies face during migration, their entire existence is in danger.  The host plant of the larva, milkweed, has been eliminated across much of the farming region of North America.  This is a direct result of the use of herbicide-tolerant corn and soybeans planted during the summer breeding times.  Additionally-- loss of habitat, decreased nectar sources, lack of protection of their over-wintering sites, logging of the Oyamel trees--all have a direct effect in the decline of the Monarch.  This unique insect is so reliant on certain aspects of nature to be in check--an elimination of one element would result in their extinction.

The morning of the event the Monarchs were caught or collected, carefully placed in envelopes and chilled (in a cooler) until the event...

Each person tagging the Monarch recorded the tag code, whether the butterfly was collected in the wild or reared/raised by a volunteer and the sex of the butterfly.    

The Male Monarch has easily identifiable hind-wing spots... 

 The tag is placed in the "mitten-shaped" cell on the underside of the hind-wing. 

 The butterflies were then allowed to "warm-up" before being released.

Free at last-- to began their long flight south!

 Monarch Waystation--Habitat certified by Monarch Watch that provides an adequate number of milkweed and nectar sources...

What a perfect day--to begin a long journey...

For more info on protecting Monarchs including:  creating Monarch Waystations, milkweed and tagging programs--visit Monarch Watch.

2010--The year of the chickens...

 Yes, we put light on the coop this year... I think it looks pretty festive and I'm sure the chicks are appreciative!

I've started thinking about my New Year's goals/resolutions-gardening related-for 2011... At least things that I want to get accomplished before spring-because once it's warm outside then that's where I'll be--outside!

*Plot my gardens:  I have all the plant markers from previous purchased annuals, perennials....  I need to sort through them and either make some kind of a scrap book or an online plot of my gardens...  I would like to be able to link the plants within the blueprint to photos I have taken and info on the plant..and I don't want to pay for any program to do this..  Any ideas are welcomed!

*Volunteer to host my gardens for the spring Master Gardener member tour.  I used to be intimidated by the thought of much more experienced gardeners critiquing my simple set-up, but after attending a couple of the tours I realized that most gardeners do not hire someone else to do the dirty work.  We would rather do it ourselves...Most members have gardens where they planted every seed or start, shoveled out every bed, construced every raised bed and they're proud of their accomplishments.  I know that I would rather tour a homemade garden than one that is perfect and professionally landscaped.  Agreeing to host my gardens will also jump start my motivation to get all the spring cleaning, planting, mulching, sprucing-up that needs to be done!

* Incorporate a kitchen garden theme into my vegetable garden, either by a potager design or just adding more flowers or perennials within the vegetables. I want to add more structure--maybe a trellis or arbor and more color throughout the season--either with flowers or ornamentals.

*Start a booth at the Farmer's Market to sell the living roof birdhouses/feeders and living wreaths that we started making last season.  I devoted a large bed to a variety of sedums and succulents so I should have plenty of starts for this project. I am a little concerned about how much time out of my schedule this will take--I work full time, I'm a mom, etc...  My oldest will be starting college and Grace, my youngest, would be the perfect sales-girl!

* Continue to volunteer at Master Gardener Xeriscape and to begin volunteering at the Dr. Bill Roston Native Butterfly House in Springfield.

*Give the chickens some jobs!  I think a portable chicken tractor is next on the husbands construction list.. Then I would be able to allow the chicks to have a little free range time with the added benefit of eating weeds, bugs--giving me free fertilizer at the same time!  I also want to add a few more hens to the flock.  I should have started out with more, but I had no idea how easy and enjoyable raising chickens would be!

*Honey Bees! Jeff has hinted that he wants to pursue bee keeping and I'm trying to contain my enthusiasm for this venture. I am thrilled--I would love to give honey as Christmas gifts next year!  If I act too excited over this prospect though, he might be concerned that I'll make 2011--The year of the bees!

Merry Christmas and have a Blessed New Year!

View my chicken-blog at communitychickens.com

Pipevine--an interesting native vine and a gracious host..

I "accidentally" created my butterfly garden eight years ago by planting herbs next to my annual and perennial flowers.  I had no idea that I was providing the perfect environment-the food and nectar-for some of the swallowtail species.  Since then, my excitement or obsession with butterfly gardening has grown and I've tried to include in my garden as many of the host plants for the caterpillars/larvae of our native Missouri butterflies that I can.

  Three years ago at a native plant sale I bought two Pipevine plants (Aristolochia tomentosa), this is the food source or host plant of the Pipevine Swallowtail larva.  I have an arbor at the entrance of my butterfly garden and I thought this would be the perfect and permanent location for this perennial vine.  One thing I have learned about this vine is to be patient..It grew very slowly the first year and I was concerned it might not return the next.  There is an old saying about perennials:  The first year they sleep, the next they creep and the third year they leap!  This couldn't be more true about the Pipevine--it takes it's time. This summer was it's third year and the first time that it bloomed.  The flowers were small, insignificant, but interesting and they did resemble or were shaped like a "pipe."--I think the butterflies were waiting for a flower to help them identify the plant, because for three years I didn't even have a second glance from the swallowtails and this year--I had probably 100 larvae!

A monarch will lay one egg on one milkweed leaf--a Pipevine Swallowtail will lay a lot of eggs on one leaf... When the caterpillars emerged from the eggs, it was a sight to see--and they had a huge appetite.  In fact, if you stood close to the vine, you could literally hear the crunching!  I started thinking that perhaps this was a little much for my immature vine.  Would it survive having every leaf munched away?  I decided to donate 12 of the caterpillars to the local butterfly house,-- Dr. Bill Roston Native Butterfly House at the Botanical Center in Springfield, MO.

I was advised to thin out the larvae to keep from defoliating the vine and spare the plant.  I know this is pathetic, but I couldn't get myself to do this.. I figured, this is a native plant, this isn't anything new--if the vine couldn't tolerate being eaten on, it wouldn't be the host plant.

Thankfully, my hunch was right and the vine re-budded, the leaves returned, and another batch of caterpillars appeared!

For the average person, an insect eaten, leafless vine is probably not an attractive addition to the garden, but true avid butterfly-gardeners are of a different mindset and I was thrilled-proud-of my giving, rejuvenating, sustaining vine!

Even though not everyone would enjoy the viewing of-or listening to-an army of hungry worms, few would deny the beauty of the end product....The Pipevine Swallowtail!

To find more great plants, check out the link...  "How to Find Great Plants" at Appalachian Feet..