Day 267

Though I started our butterfly garden in spring, I am continuing to add to it in autumn. Even though it isn’t a large portion of our land, creating this strip of garden adjacent to our compost pile and bordering our culvert has added little splashes of color to an otherwise drab part of our land. While more color will be added when our prairie is planted and established, the butterfly garden offers a small preview of what the acer can become. 

After initially planting a couple dozen plants in June, I let Mother Nature do her thing besides a few wedding and trimming tasks throughout summer. I put cages around some of the plants I knew would be favorites of our deer. While they got to a few of the uncaged plants, many have grown tremendously, establishing a root system that should allow them to thrive for years to come. It was also great to see a large amount of commission milkweed and a few goldenrod help protect the border from encroaching weeds. While many plants were doing very well, I had plenty of space to add to our garden.

Always on the lookout for plants, I was happy to be contacted by a fellow and local native plant enthusiast who was looking to thin out a number of plants that were taking over some of her garden space.

With pots and shovels at the ready, my son and I headed to her house after school. While my son was more interested in finding worms, I was happy to add new and diverse native plants to our space. Because of the location of our butterfly garden, I contained my plant excitement and limited myself to adopting full sun dependent plants though I was tempted to grab shade needing plants as well.

After grabbing a few plants (and probably a few worms), we took the plants home and got them into the ground before darkness fell. We have kept them watered as we hope they overcome any shock from the transplantation and get comfortable re-establish their root system in their new home. Hopefully, the move is successful and our new plants will thrive in our garden.