The 2008 Caterpillar Project

Generally, our neighborhood has stripped most of the native flowers from the yards and my neighbors seem to view perrenials as less than desirable. Evergreen is the color of my block.

My backyard is an anomoly though. We have continued to build the perrenial gardens each season. Starting last fall, I had been adding host plants to our garden in an effort to offer the butterflies more opportunities to lay eggs and hang around.

So, amidst the lantanna and butterfly bushes, I have strategically planted host plants. So far, it has been pretty successful. They seem more temperamental than our other garden plants. I have no idea why, but the parsley and rue just seem to fail for no apparant reason. But we did manage to get a few plants to root and take up residence.

So, this year, we have a huge crop of black swallowtail caterpillars. Last year, a kind woman at Pike's had given us some rue plants with larvae on them. I quickly managed to kill the plants and the birds got the larvae. But we had determined that we could offer them a place to lay this year. So, we added several rue, parsley and fennil plants.

The challenge will be keeping them alive. Despite their bright markings, the wrens seem to love to eat them. I am considering building a net structure to put over the plant to protect them, but I don't relish the way it will look.

We also identified another welcome guest that took up residence on our weeping locust. A silver wing skipper. We have seen a lot of these on the flowers, but didn't know they would lay on the tree. The caterpillar creates a little sleeping bag out of leaves to rest in during the day. We only found it because the leaves were all stuck together and it was at eye level. It's a big tree, so we assume there are more up there.

A less welcome guest turned up this weekend as well. We found these caterpillars on one of our eonymus shrubs near the gate. At first glance, they looked facinating. Very pretty and interesting looking. We hoped they would be to something decorative. We were wrong. Apparently, the saddle-back caterpillar is pretty well known for its sting. They needles are venomous and very very painful. There are entire discussion threads about how foul these stings are. Add insult to injury, the moth is just non-descript. We are still deciding if we need to do anything about these critters. They are out of the way, and the kids have been warned.

All in all, this summer has been a boon for butterflies, moths and larvae. We recently added passion flower to our garden to offer something for the frittallaries. So far, no takers. But it was late in the season.

Turning Pond Muck into Compost

This came up as a question from a friend who wanted to know how I kept the pond clean. The answer, this year, has been a plant filter in the water fall. We do have a filter set up for the large pond, but over the spring the parrot feather got so thick that it seemed to be enough.

Around April I took all the filter matter out of the filter and just let the vortex collect the bigger chunks. Over time, the pond got clearer and stayed clean. Meanwhile, the waterfall was completely full of parrot feather - to the point I started ripping it out in chunks.

As with all garden matter, it went into the compost. A lot of it. More than grass clippings from the lawn.

Then I had an epiphany. The plant was turning all the nutrients and solids in the water into its roots, stems and leaves (ok, i was a little slow on this). The more it grew, the less nutrition was in the water. It basically starved out the algae. To boot, the roots are SO thick that they captured everything that was passing through the falls.

The falls basically became my own little wetlands cleaning the water. AND, the plant is pretty! It certainly makes a nice carpet.

All summer long, I have been cutting the plant out and throwing it into the compost. I haven't had to clean a filter pad a single time all summer. Organic waste to parrot feather to compost to garden to flowers. It's been working perfect.

This week I decided to edit down a video explaining how it works. Enjoy!

Lowe's and I built it together!

I love perrenial sales. I particularly love surprise perrenial sales. Like the one that my local Lowe's sprang on me this Friday. Plants, which were regularly about $10-12 were marked down to $1-2. Now THAT is a sale.

I have no idea why they do this. The common belief is that after they start to wane, the average customer doesn't buy them. Another idea is that they are going to be too heat stressed this time of year to sell. If someone can tell me the "real" reason for this, please do.

I dunno! But they all came home with me. Every single last one that was on the shelf. Every wonder how many plants a Mini Cooper can carry? 9 Black Magic Taro's, 10 cone flowers, 3 hardy hibiscus, 11 hardy canna. That many!

The elephant ears are great. Particularly for the wet area in our lower garden that gets the run-off from the upper garden. I have managed to drown several plants already before I realized how wet the spot really gets.

Now, I am adding true marshy plants to the area. The taro and the hibiscus will go in that spot. But the real find this trip was the echinacea. The ones they cleared out were the sky series. A few years ago, they were new and very expensive. They still arent cheap, but they are commonly available. The patch we planted will spread like crazy, and feed the butterflies and birds well.

So... Thanks to Lowe's, we were able to expand the butterfly garden pretty far for like, 40 bucks. Another trip to Starbucks (cause I love them too) for about 15 pounds of coffee grinds and about 30 dollars in peat moss and soil conditioner (we used all the compost).

Another great step in the master plan to build a huge butterfly garden. I am now stalking the perrenial rack for the next big sale.

Elapsed Garden Time: Combined 13 hours.
Weed-O-Rating: 5 on a scale of 5. Exceptional weekend!

Pike's, Starbucks, Compost and Lantana

This morning starts off the way most saturdays start. Kids driving me crazy and demanding food. Today, I wake to a ringing doorbell. My son has slept next door and is coming back home with the crack of dawn.

Once we are up and moving around, our gardening day starts. Gracie (4) and I head out to get some fresh air and survey the land. Most of the flowers are spent at this point, and we are down to deadheading instead of bouquets. One shining star is the Limelight Hydrangea in full bloom at the top of the arbor. We bought it from Bluestone Nurseries by mail two years ago, and it is one of my favorites. So much so, we have bought and planted another ten down by the woods.

I feed the fish in the pond and Grace works on her rabbit garden- her cast iron rabbit garden. Bought at the Garden Show when she was just 2. They have been buried, found, moved, lost, washed, ponded... everything. And they are her friends.

Today, she has picked more flowers to decorate their home. She knows they don't last. And she couldn't care less. She'll just decorate again tomorrow. She picks out a few things to bring with her to Pike's. Today, she is bringing water iris seeds.

We head out to the nursery at 10:00 to see what is on sale. Years ago, we had made friends with a woman who works weekends there. Gracie and I saw her every sunday when we went out after dropping Aaron off at Hebrew school. We stopped at Starbucks and got drinks, then headed on to one of the garden centers (usually Pike's) to shop the bargain bin. That's how we met Caroline.

Today, Pike's has Miss Huff on sale for $4.99 and Oakleaf Hydrangea for $8.99. I grab 4 of the lantanna and 3 of the hydrangea. Meanwhile, Caroline is showing Grace the newest surprise. A small nest of wrens is in one of the shrubs. Caroline has been amazing in convincing the managers to let wildlife take up residence, even if it damages some goods. She usually has a stand with caterpillars going. It makes the whole experience richer. She is 80%of the reason we go to Pike's. And we are done... Next stop, Starbucks.

You can't use too much grounds!

Not for coffee, but for the free grounds. This has been an amazing discovery. Turns out, you can't overuse coffee grounds when planting. I would have thought they were too acidic, but they aren't at all. In fact, they do a great job at breaking up our Georgia clay into something that almost looks like soil. Almost. We get 3 bags plus what they have behind the counter. A savings of about $20 equivelent soil amendment (bulk organic and slow release fertilizer).

Working the compost
Next project today will be turning and mixing the compost. Last week, we used it all up and we sorta need more. Best solution... see what has finished cooking. So we go to the cooking bin (1 of 3 composters) and start pulling out the uncooked material. I've found the best thing to do is chop up the unfinished matter with a machete and just start a new bin.

When i think of it, I chop it as it goes in. This time, I had forgotten. So, slowly I sift out the big chunks and reduce them to smaller chunks. What I am left with is perfect, moist compost. About 8 buckets worth. Enough to plant the plants.

We have also turned our organic matter and started that on the way to compost. More stuff will get added today as we weed. And the machete is already out.

Planting
Off to plant the lantana. We had been waiting for Pike's to get a new shipment for weeks. The five plants we had planted in the spring are doing great and are home to butterflies all day. So, we will be adding another four to spread our butterfly garden out further. There are tons of Lantana out there. Only Miss Huff is hardy in Georga. And annuals suck.

Between the coffee grounds and the compost, we have no need to buy more soil amendments. Just mix them really, really well into the soil until the clay looks pulverized. Most perrenials appreciate wider more than deep. After the hole is dug, I chop up the clay in a two foot perimeter and mix the grounds and compost into it. When done, I top dress it with yet more compost and some decayed pine needles lying around.

It's 2:30, and storms are rolling in while I am finishing. If you ever want to see a grown man run like a girl, catch him with a shovel in hand when lightning strikes close. Gardening is done. Time for a shower and some lunch.

Elapsed Garden Time: 4:30.
Weed-O-Rating: 3 on a scale of 5. Rain called the day early.

Bermuda Grass is Pure Evil.

It's July and the daylillies are in full bloom!

This year, we had a really mild winter and a nice wet spring, so almost everything is blooming really well. It's time to start the late spring clean up. What that means is crazy weeding. Generally, I don't get a lot of weeds in the beds. But what I do get is the bermuda grass encroaching into the garden edge.

I have dealt with it in a number of (moderately ineffective) ways.
I have:

1. Dug the border nice and deep and try to keep it clear.
2. Sprayed the edge on the garden side with RoundUp pretty frequently.
3. I weed wack the edge really hard. Like super hard. To the point that I am covered in mud when I am done.

None of this really works. All the RoundUp seems to do is give it a nasty hangover. And I am not a huge fan of tougher chemistry.The grass is just pure evil. It sends runners under the dirt and gets into the bed, and when that happens there is nothing to do but weed it out by hand.

So this Saturday, it will be a weedathon. We will be taking care of the front beds, the side beds and the back beds. The only ones that are in good shape are the beds by the pond. Why? Cause that is where I tend to hang out and drink wine - and pull weeds. The front, however, gets no lovin'. It is pretty shabby.

Start at 9:30. Our tools of choice are simple. Hand Claw, Big Claw (i have no idea what this is really called) and lots of buckets. I love to have a bucket always within reach in the garden. I have started keeping the nicer metal ones, cause the plastic ones tend to be eyesores.

On this beautiful day, both kids have volunteered to help me out! They last 10 minutes. After chasing the crickets, they are hot and tired. They both escape to cooler climates in the house. Meanwhile, me and my claw tool rip through the beds.

The mulch has completely decayed, and the top few inches resemble a soil. Sorta. I have chosen not to mulch this year and to just turn in last year's mulch and keep working it. So far, it has done a great a job at making the soil nice and rich as well as looser. A real challenge in Georgia.

About two hours later, I have worked around. Clawing up the edge and chasing down the runners that the grass sends into the garden.

I have seen my children occasionally, for short bursts. Usually related to some sort of wildlife they are trying to catch.

It rains. Not bad. Made it cooler, but didn't really get the soil wet. Hooray drought! Sigh...


By 2:00, the beds are edged pretty well, and I recruit my son and his friend to go around and deadhead the butterfly bushes. Amazingly, this is something I can really get some help with. I have no idea why, but they love to chop off the dead stuff with clippers.


The highlight of the day has been the discovery of Black Swallowtail larvae happily living on the Parsley. On the advice of the garden center, we have planted fennel as well. We have been working on creating more habitat for larvae. Far more pleasing than Gracie's last pet - a tomato worm.

In general, the weeding wasn't hard. As time has gone by, the soil has gotten softer and more crumbly. The clay is turning into something less like terra cotta. Everything that we have pulled, cut or chopped is heading to the compost bin. Nothing goes to waste.

Elapsed Garden Time: 8 hours.
Weed-O-Rating: 5 on a scale of 5. Got all my tasks done and had great weather.