All the Dirt on Gardening

Is there anything prettier than a milkweed seed pod? They are a mess to work with but worth it for the Monarch butterflies they bring into the garden every fall. Jerry Gustafson, retired physician, is a plant friend with whom I have spent about an hour over the course of a 3 year friendship. We mostly send emails and he occasionally sends things in the mail such as seeds he collected or garden-related information he ran across that he thought I would like. Last summer, he sent me three swamp milkweed seed pods that he had collected while on vacation in WI. Today, I cleaned and planted them. What a mess. But! Now they are planted, watered and safely stored in the cold frames to stratify/scarify/etceterafy.