All the Dirt on Gardening

The most beautiful and watchable life in our gardens include butterflies, moths and skippers. Called the Lepidopteran order of insects, they pollinate plants as well as feed songbirds, reptiles and amphibians. Their pollination helps create fruit, vegetables and flowers. These insects go through metamorphosis in four stages A fertilized egg that hatches in about a week. The larval or caterpillar stage. During this period of life they eat leaves, shedding their skin several times as they grow larger. A pupa or chrysalis that the caterpillar attaches to a plant with silk. Inside the case, the caterpillar turns to liquid and forms into a butterfly, moth or skipper. The adult emerges with wet folded wings in about 2 weeks. Butterflies, moths and skippers need flower nectar, water, sunshine, a mud puddle and caterpillar food to raise the next generation. They also need a chemical free environment without pesticides, herbicides and other poisons. To attract adult butterflies and moths, prov...

One of the native plants I bought from Wild Things Nursery this year has grown over six-feet tall and blooms these beautiful blue flowers every morning. They close up in the afternoon. Maybe Marilyn Stewart from Wild Things will see the photo and let us know what the name of this plant. A friend picked up my plants for me this year and I didn't get a list of what I bought. After my great butterfly caterpillar give away in Muskogee on Earth Day, I bought butterfly weed or Asclepsis or milk weed seeds and planted the small plants in several places in the hope of attracting butterfly caterpillars. This photo isn't of the best quality but you can see that the mama butterflies found the plants, laid eggs and the eggs hatched. The day after this photo, the caterpillar had attached itself to a black plastic flower pot. That's what the spicebush butterfly caterpillar did, too. I would have chosen something more elegant but they seem to prefer those pots I have littered around t...