Hello GPODers!
As a lot as our gardens are our personal private havens, and there may be at all times a glimmer of pleasure once we delight and impress our backyard company, we are able to’t overlook that our outside areas are additionally important for the useful bugs and wildlife that we cohabitate with. Barbara Mrgich in Adams County, Pennsylvania is right here to offer us an amazing reminder of the affect our gardens can have on our ecosystems by showcasing the methods she helps the marvelous monarch. These butterflies are well-loved for his or her placing wing colour and sample in addition to revered for his or her unimaginable capacity emigrate hundreds of miles each fall and spring. Nevertheless, monarch populations have been in decline due to elevated habitat loss and these essential pollinators want extra gardeners like Barbara to supply the the vegetation which are very important in numerous levels of their lifecycle.
I’m a grasp gardener in Adams County, PA. For the previous ten years, I’ve been learning the significance of supporting pollinators and different useful bugs in my suburban zone 6b backyard. (They preserve telling us we at the moment are zone 7a, however this yr, my birdbaths froze stable two instances earlier than Thanksgiving, so I’m not shopping for it.)
Step one in supporting extra pollinators is to plant extra native vegetation, ensuring to incorporate host vegetation for particular species which are frequent in your space. I’m devoting this publish to monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus), and can observe up with a couple of others in a future submission.
Listed here are a couple of of my images from 2025.
In case you are all for supporting monarch butterflies, you want milkweed. Milkweed species (Asclepias spp.) is the one plant monarch caterpillars can eat. With out it, there will probably be no monarch butterflies. Right here is the attractive butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa, Zone 3–9). Watch out to not confuse it with butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii, Zone 5–9), which is extremely invasive in our space and really a lot undesired!
Together with butterfly weed, it’s possible you’ll select swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata, Zone 3–9), one other stunning Asclepias species. Relying on the world of the nation the place you reside, different milkweed species native to your space, could also be extra to your selecting. Swamp milkweed is extremely enticing to many alternative pollinators as a nectar plant, and very enticing to monarchs as a number plant. This plant was lined with monarch caterpillars from July by September this yr. Its blooms attracted many alternative species of pollinators.
Swamp milkweed feeds bees and different pollinators of all types. Neither Asclepias tuberosa nor Asclepias incarnata unfold by rhizomes to invade your backyard as frequent milkweed (Asclepias syriaca, Zone 3–8) is understood to do. They won’t take over your backyard.
Monarch caterpillars first appeared on my butterfly weed in early July.
Shortly thereafter, in August, they began appearing on the swamp milkweed. (Caterpillars are soiled issues. All they do is eat and poop!) One strategy to discover them on the plant is to search for the fras (poop) immediately under the place they’re consuming.
Across the center of August the seedpods on the swamp milkweed start to open. That is how they’re ripe. At this level it’s straightforward to gather them to start out vegetation for subsequent yr. Milkweed wants chilly stratification, so I begin them someday after Christmas in milk jugs utilizing winter seed sowing strategies (very straightforward).
Aphids are an ugly pest who’re particularly interested in milkweed. You positively don’t wish to spray them as a result of any spray may also kill the caterpillars. You may wash them off with a powerful spray of water, however you’re additionally washing and drowning the eggs and caterpillars. As you possibly can see on this photograph, they don’t hassle the caterpillar, simply the gardener!
I at all times plant an enormous patch of zinnias, coneflowers, and tithonia proper beside my milkweeds. They’re favourite nectar vegetation of butterflies and lots of different pollinators. Here’s a monarch butterfly on tithonia.
A monarch butterfly nectaring on echinacea.
Thanks a lot for this informative and galvanizing submission, Barbara! I believe all of us backyard with the hope of attracting and supporting some stunning pollinators, however you go the additional mile to make sure your backyard is having an enormous useful affect.
All of us miss the flowers as soon as they fade, however we may also miss the attractive pollinators and cute creatures that go to our gardens in the course of the hotter months. Should you’ve captured images of the varied wildlife and bugs that visited your backyard this yr, think about sharing them with Backyard Photograph of the Day! Comply with the instructions under to submit images through electronic mail, or ship me a DM on Instagram: @agirlherdogandtheroad.
We wish to see YOUR backyard!
Have images to share? We’d like to see your backyard, a specific assortment of vegetation you’re keen on, or a beautiful backyard you had the prospect to go to!
To submit, ship 5–10 images to [email protected] together with some details about the vegetation within the footage and the place you took the images. We’d love to listen to the place you’re positioned, how lengthy you’ve been gardening, successes you’re happy with, failures you realized from, hopes for the long run, favourite vegetation, or humorous tales out of your backyard.
Have a cell phone? Tag your images on Fb, Instagram, or Twitter with #FineGardening!
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