Today Robin Jones of Honey Girl Grows returns to the Gardenerd Tip of the Week Podcast. We chat about bees and monarchs and stuff you might not know yet.
Today's post is from guest blogger Randy Schultz from American Meadows. Butterflies need our help and in this article he suggests plants that provide habitat for these beautiful creatures. Take it away Randy: Essential Plants for a Great Butterfly Garden Everyone loves butterflies. These delightful insects are like flying flowers, adding color and movement everywhere they go. Unfortunately, these beautiful insects are in trouble. The populations of many species, including the monarch butterfly, are dwindling due to shrinking habitat. But…
A question came into Ask Gardenerd this week about milkweed plants and seeds: "Could you please recommend a reliable source to buy African milkweed? I would like to grow some in Rochester NY. Is this the correct kind for my area, by the way? Thank you, Julia Joshpe" Hi Julia, while African Milkweed is beautiful and fun to grow, it's not a native milkweed in New York. Take heart, though. We found a site that has plenty of recommendations for…
I've been hearing it for awhile, especially from the native plant enthusiasts and experts among us: pull out non-native milkweeds, it's making our Monarchs sick. What? Aren't we supposed to be growing milkweed for Monarch butterflies, you ask. The answer is yes, but it's more complicated than that. Nobody ever really explained to me why we need to stop growing non-native milkweeds, just that we need to stop. But finally something came across my desk to explain it succinctly. Recent…
A question came into Ask Gardenerd this week that I even asked myself last year: "First year planting swamp milkweed for Monarchs - just had two butterflies exit their cocoons this morning. Had five plants this year - going big next year. Question - lots of info on how to get plants started but nothing on end of season maintenance. Should we cut back the stems on the existing plants or do we just leave them? Not sure what to…
For those who have been following our recent visitors to our milkweed plants, we have some exciting news. We were fortunate enough to catch the transformation of Monarch butterfly from caterpillar to cocoon to butterfly last week. (If you want to catch up, click the link above to go back to the beginning). We were out in the garden early one morning and saw that the chrysalis had changed color. What was bright green had turned dark, and we could…
For those following the path of the Monarch butterfly migration, and for those providing milkweed as habitat for them along the way, you'll be pleased to know that we have had a visitor over the past month in the Gardenerd Test Garden. When last we posted, we were starting to see eggs and tiny worms. In this post we'll share new "developments." At first we spied three caterpillars, but over time they became harder to find. We witnessed a spider…
Perhaps the most important part of any vegetable garden is the habitat surrounding the garden itself. Having a place where good bugs can thrive can be the difference between a successful garden, or one full of pests. Milkweed plays an important role in keeping one species happy: the Monarch butterfly. Monarchs are amazing for a number of reasons. First, they only lay their eggs on milkweed plants, because that is the single food of their young larvae. Second, most monarchs…