Windsor is all about "discovering" lately, and that makes me happy! Yesterday she said, "Mama. Let's go explore about insects in the garden". She didn't have to ask me twice! Off we went to the SDS garden. Our first stop was the zinnias, because they are blooming and a likely spot for insects- just not today... Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a Swallow Tail butterfly flitting around our butterfly garden. This really made my day.
You see, this time last year, we were in the middle of planting our butterfly garden. I was looking high and low, for milkweed, the only food known to nourish Monarch caterpillars. If you can find the milkweed, you can usually find monarch caterpillar eggs on the bottom of the leaves. I called every nursery in eastern NC. I looked in fields, ditches, yards, and the woods. No one had milkweed. I ended up in Leland at a neat little place and found it. The only problem was that there were no eggs . I bought some anyway, hoping to attract some Monarchs to lay eggs.
What I did find that day were Swallow Tail caterpillars eating dill weed and wild celery. Noting their more diverse palate, I decided to bring some of those home too. So we headed to Wallace with an empty water bottle full of caterpillars and a truck full of food for them.
It was fascinating to watch the creature grow and change in their natural habitat.
So, back to the story, we headed over to the butterfly garden. I was delighted to see that indeed we have had some visitors in our garden!
I noticed that much of the wild celery was eaten, and that some of the dill too.
The adult Swallow Tail was really enjoying drinking nectar from the dill flowers.
Here is the Swallow Tail adult flying around!
So when you drive by, or arrive on the first day of school and see our WILD garden, you will know why! I couldn't possibly cut down all that yummy butterfly food! And just maybe, if we are lucky, we will find a chrysalis to watch as we come back together in September!
