Reflections

It is almost the new year, and time to think back on my garden, and some of my plans for the next year. Last year at this time, I had no idea how things would progress. I never imagined I would have so many different butterflies in my yard, we even saw a new swallowtail yesterday, probably checking out our dutchman's vine as a host plant. My husband is a bit proud of the fact that our yard is certified and that we are seeing so many things in our backyard. I have plans for more flowers this year and also to try to sell some native plants. I also want to sell some heirloom vegetables and herbs. This is going to be a challenge with the water restrictions, but I will use buckets of water from the shower and I am also going to be collecting rain water. Have a great New Year, and hope everyone enjoys my blog next year, sure there will be a lot happening.

What you don't see

There are a lot of things coming to our yard that I haven't managed to get a picture of, honestly, I don't even always see them. My son is the one that spots most of the stuff first, and if it hangs around, then he points it out to me. He has spotted egrets by the pond, at night we have a opossum coming to get a drink, the opossum also eats the star fruit from the tree behind our yard. I have been trying to get a picture of an adult giant swallowtail, but so far no luck, though we have several of the caterpillars. We also get sulphur butterflies but they are so quick, no pictures yet. Hopefully we will see more of them and some caterpillars since we have planted a few host plants for them

This morning, a grey catbird and a painted bunting were in our yard, the catbird was getting a drink from one of the bird baths, and the bunting was hiding in a shrub and eating some beach sunflower seeds. These sunflowers really are a a great plant for our native garden, they are spreading wonderfully, they don't need any additional water once established and we have spotted several small birds enjoying the tiny seeds. We are getting dragonflies in our small pond, they eat a few of our smaller guppies, but the way they breed, that isn't a problem. We aren't sure if the birds are eating any, but so far we still have a good population of fish in it. It really is a wonderful experience to just be out in the yard and see what is hanging around. While working on some stuff the other day, I was able to watch a monarch, a gulf fritillary and a zebra longwing all feeding in the butterfly garden at the same time. It is such a beautiful day, I am out there now to enjoy.

Reptiles in the Habitat

I know to many people, attracting reptiles into your backyard may not sound appealing. Our family, however, happens to like snakes and lizards and we keep many as pets. We also like them coming to our backyard as visitors. One of the most common reptiles in our area are the little anoles, they live in plants, under leaves, and they eat loads of insects. We see them mostly by the fences, and in my butterfly garden, hiding among the plants, and running out to snatch an insect. I consider them one of the best friends a gardener can have, since they don't harm your plants. Besides the anoles, we get some of the exotic lizards that have been introduced into Florida. We have curly tails, a few small geckos of different breeds and the cuban knight anoles. So far, we haven't seen any iguanas in our yard, but sure in the next few years, they will be here, they are taking over South Florida. I am not sure what we will do when they arrive, they don't belong here, but so many now, not sure if they can ever be eradicated. We also like attracting snakes, snakes eat rats, and because of the garbage from the apartments behind us, for the last 5 years or so, we have seen rats. A nice hungry corn snake can clean out a nest, I know this because I have 5 captive born corn snakes, and boy, can they eat. Sadly, these snakes are being killed by many of our neighbors because they are uneducated about the environment around them and figure any brightly colored snake is poisonous, so as soon as they seen one, they grab something and kill it. The most common snake that we do see is the black racer, these snakes hunt in the day time, so you are likely to see one when you are out in the yard. They are fast, and if cornered can be aggressive. Luckily many of our neighbors are now learning that if they see a snake, to come get my son, and he will identify it and remove it from their yard. We have a brush pile in our yard to encourage the snakes to hang around our yard where they won't be killed.

More of a rant

This is more a rant against our local government and water management people than about my garden today. Yes, we are in the middle of a long drought, rainfall has been down. I am all for conserving water and I have been making every effort I can to use less water. As I replace lawn with native plants, most don't need hardly any water once they are established. When they do need water, if I must use the hose, I do it only as needed, not on a daily or even weekly schedule. When we do get rain, I don't water anyway, just because it happens to be my day to water. At the moment we are allowed to water twice a week, but I am not watering even that much. I use recycled water mostly for watering plants, we have turtles, they need to have their water changed a few times a week, that always goes onto a thirsty plant, not just down the drain. If I find a glass of water that someone left on the counter, that goes to a plant. When watering a potted plant, I place it next to another plant that can use the water that runs out of the pot. I have been saving rainwater in a small kiddie pool and using that for almost all of my backyard watering. Oh, and as far as my remaining grass, it is surviving just on rainwater. It has been fairly brown for a few weeks, last night it rained a bit, that will keep it alive for a few more weeks.
Okay, now to the reason I am so upset. Starting January 15 when we go to once a week watering, I will have one day only when I can water my plants, these are plants that provide habitat and food for butterflies, bees, food for birds and they also provide beauty, and purify the air by producing oxygen. I can't water these without fear of being reported on by a neighbor and fined, yet this same neighbor can wash his car any day of the week. Yes, they have decided that having a clean car while it pollutes the environment is so important,that it is okay to wash your car regardless of the fact that we are running short of water in South Florida. We have two guys across the street from us that have been washing their car three or four times a week since we have been on water restrictions. Their little patch of lawn that is sprayed with chemicals is watered every single day that it is allowed, even if it is raining, they are watering.
I will follow the once a week water rationing, I will try to cut back even more, even shorter showers, trying to do less loads of laundry, and I just bought a bucket to bring in the shower with me so I can collect water while I shower to use on plants, but can I say I am ticked. I just can't accept that needing to wash a car or boat on an almost daily basis is more important than saving water.
Look at these pictures, then think of clean cars, what is more important to the future of our planet.

Around the yard

It has been a busy week around the garden. Last Saturday was the plant show at Fairchild Gardens, I had a fantastic time with my sister. Okay, we have totally different taste in plants, she calls mine weeds and I feel hers are boring exotics with no potential for attracting wildlife to her yard. She looks at that as a good thing since she doesn't want the nasty little worms eating her plants. Little does she know that my son and I have plans to put in a butterfly garden for her grandson.

I got several native plants, and finally convinced my husband that another tree would look good in the front yard, we put in a necklace pod ( sophora tomentosa). Now I think it looks a bit lonely so needs some plants around it. I also got some more plants for the area in the bed in front of the pool, hoping to make that area more attractive to the butterflies by having more nectar plants. I put in a wild sage, (lantana involucrata), the native tick seed or coreopsis and a porterweed. I also bought my son a larger coontie (zamia pumila). He really likes those and the one he bought is very small and they are not fast growers. I still have a cassia to plant somewhere in the yard today. It is a host plant for some of the sulphur butterflies, which we see, but they hardly ever land, so I would like to attract more of those to our backyard.

Other than planting, we have had a few visitors, we have gulf fritillary and monarch caterpillars, and we just found some more giant swallowtails ones this morning. I am thrilled to be getting those, but wish they would give my wild lime just a bit more time to grow. I may have to take those off, get some of our key lime leaves and raise them indoors, so this poor plant can get a few more leaves. I also admit, I wouldn't mind trying to get a picture of an adult. I did see one this week, but couldn't get close enough. We also may have seen the hummingbird again.

Attracting vultures to your backyard habitat

Everyone can get doves, crows and blue jays to come to their yard just by putting out some sunflowers seeds, but other birds are much harder to attract.

Vultures may not be considered beautiful by many, but they do serve a very useful purpose. Here in South Florida a few vultures hang around most of the year, but around October the numbers increase. I won't speculate on the rumors that this migration of vultures coincides with the arrival of the retired crowds from New York, Massachusettts and other northern states.

Since vultures are not attracted by the normal seeds and fruits that are present in your yard, you must use other methods of attracting them. You can see by looking at these pictures, one of the baits used to attract them. You must make sure the bait is in an open area so the vultures can see it, soon they will be circling around, and once one spots it, others follow. Their circle will get lower and lower as they look for any movement. If the bait doesn't move, the vulture will come down and start feeding.

Okay, by now, hope you have all realized this post is a joke, and no dogs were harmed. That is my dog, Max, and he really enjoys sleeping in the sun. The fact that vultures were starting to circle around our property and were getting lower, however, is not a joke. This has happened on several occasions, I just happened to have the camera ready yesterday while I was hoping for a picture of the hummingbird. I always have this vision of the hopeful vultures seeing him move, and going DARN IT, it isn't dead.

HUMMINGBIRD

Today was very eventful, we had a ruby throated hummingbird come to our backyard, and feed off our porterweed. This is just the most fantastic thing , to actually see a hummingbird in our backyard. I have lived in Florida for 32 years and this is the second time I have seen a hummingbird. The only other time was at an attraction south of us known as Flamingo Gardens. Flamingo Garden has been around since the 1930's I believe and is known for it's tropical gardens, that we got a hummingbird in our modest little backyard garden is just fantastic. My son saw it for the first time this morning, I missed it. The second time, he saw it, I got a glimpse, and then while I was inside he watched it for about 30 seconds. After breakfast I went back out with the camera. I was just talking with my son, and sitting by the butterfly garden, when he said "There it is!" It stayed for about a minute and I got a pretty good picture of it. Man, I am happy today, oh by the way, my son told me it is a female because it doesn't have the ruby colored throat.

A bit off track

I don't just grow my garden for wildlife, I do it for my own enjoyment. For several years now I have been trying to grow herbs. Now South Florida is harsh place to grow them. You read that the plant likes full sun, so you find a nice sunny spot, and the plant is dead two days later. Full sun in most of the USA, doesn't mean full sun here. Now, trying to find shade in my yard isn't easy, we have the one large tree in the front, sometimes I put herbs there, but they are not in a place that is convienent if you need to give them a quick watering, so I lose some. I can put them way in the backyard, but then I lose the convenience of just walking outside my kitchen door and grabbing a few leaves for supper. I do keep a few on my windowsill, but space is limited there since I am still using that space for rooting and taking care of plants that I suddenly find wilted or broke and need a few weeks of special care.

So far I haven't really convinced my husband that we don't need a bland front yard with just one tree and grass, so I can't dig out a nice area in the front and make a wagon wheel shaped herb garden. I finally came up with a solution that is making everyone happy. I went out and bought a huge pot, and I mean huge, I had to put 100 pounds of dirt in it, then I planted basil, rosemary, thyme,dill, tarragon and chives in it. These are the herbs I use the most. It sits by the door and when I need something for cooking I can just run out and get it. It is starting to fill in and looking pretty good, and I expect it to do well during the cooler months.

November and the habitat

It has been a while since I posted, most things are doing very well out in the yard. I put the wild lime out in the back, and it has several giant swallowtail caterpillars on it. I feel great about this, because I wasn't sure if the first ones hatched from eggs that came with the plant. Now I know that I am getting them in my yard and they are laying eggs. I am getting lots of butterflies, the most exciting one has been the zebra longwing, it is the state butterfly for Florida, but I haven't been seeing around locally. Looks like the host plants for the caterpillars and all the flowers are attracting them. We have a new garden with almost all native plants, and everything seems to be thriving, but it needs to do a lot of filling in before it really looks good.

Next weekend I am hoping to go to a huge plant show with my sister, and there are several plants I am hoping to find. I am really to the point now where I know which ones seem to do the best, and which ones attract the most butterflies. Now that I know this, I am going to be getting in more of the perennials. I will still do some annuals, but probaby keep them in pots so when they die I can just move the pot.

I am learning more each day, and working to encourage more people to have their yard certified. It is so wonderful to step outside each day and to discover something new in your own backyard.

Why Certify?

My husband had a hard time understanding why I wanted my yard certified by the National Wildlife Federation, he was worried that someone would come out and inspect things, and just really is not a plant person.

I decided this was something I wanted to do for the planet, just one small step. Now I am encouraging others to get their yard certified also. Then benefits aren't just for the wildlife, but you benefit so much also.

The first thing you need to do to certify your yard is to take a look at what you already have and decide if your yard meets the 4 basic requirements and if you don't, what do you need to add to your yard. You don't need a huge piece of property either, birds and butterflies will come to the smallest yard and sometimes they are the ones that need help the most .

First off is food, are there any plants that provide berries in your yard, many of the native plants in your yard already provide that, so check for those in your yard. Flowers provide nectar and pollen for the butterflies, and how can you go wrong with more flowers in your yard. Even a pot of flowers can provide food for a hungry butterfly. Next do you have host plants for your native butterflies, those really bring more butterflies to your yard since the females search those out when searching for a place to leave eggs. Of course there is always the bird feeders, and those attract lots of birds.

Next is water, that can be an existing pond, you can put in a small pond, or even a birdbath. It is that simple, you just need to clean and fill the birdbath on a daily basis. One note on birdbaths, forget the fancy resin ones, they look nice, but don't seem to be made to actually go outside in the sun and hold water, they tend to start leaking and cracking. The best one I have found, just used an old saucer from a pot, this one happens to be concrete, but a glazed one would work fine as long as it holds water.

Next is a place to raise young, that can be a large tree, if you have local birds that use houses, put up a few, a pond is a place for frogs to raise young, the host plants for the butterflies is a place to raise young.

The last requirement is cover. Do you have large bushes where a bird can hide from a predator? You can build a brush pile for reptiles to hide under, and this doesn't have to be ugly, you can plant a vine over it, then it also supplies food for butterflies and birds if there are seeds on it.

You can go the National Wildlife Federation and download their application and see exactly what you need to do to certify your yard. Also if you just can't do your yard, maybe you can encourage someone else to do their yard and help them out. Every bit helps and you will enjoy knowing you did something to help the planet and wildlife.

If you do decide after reading this to get your yard certified, please let me know, I have set a goal of trying to get others to have their yard certified.

The Birds

No, this isn't about Alfred Hitchcock's movie, this is about the birds that are visiting my yard. So far they haven't attacked anyone, but it has been pretty close on the days that my son isn't filling the bird feeders quick enough. We are mostly getting ring necked dove, they come in huge flocks, but we also get blue jays, a few grackles, and my favorite, the cardinals. How can you not like a bird with such beautiful coloring. What I am finding really cool about the cardinals is that they seem more inclined to actually go to the native plants and try some of them, and not just hang at the feeders. Today they were eating the beautyberry seeds and they will go and actually eat the sunflower seeds straight from the plant. I am really hoping that as the birds start migrating, we get even more varieties in our backyard.

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Ian's essay

Ian my 12 year old son wrote this report to finish off a lesson on ecology and he wanted me to put it on here for him

Today too many people spray their yard for insects and over fertilize their yard. All the chemicals that go in to lawns are extremely bad for wildlife and it's not just for animals, It's bad for people too. Many of the chemicals that go into lawns are cacinogens, meaning they can cause cancer. What people should do is plant native plants. Native plants need less water than exotics. They also provide habitat for many animals, to make a good habitat you need food, water, shelter and places to raise young.

Ian

age 12

Swallowtail butterfly

Today I made a really cool discovery on the wild lime that I bought a few weeks ago at the native plant show. The wild lime doesn't produce fruit for humans, but supposedly the birds do eat the .25 inch fruits it does produce

The wild lime is also a host plant for the swallowtail butterfly. A host plant is a plant that a particular butterfly looks for to lay her eggs on and when they hatch this is what the caterpillar will feed on until it is ready to change. They are very important in the butterfly garden since many caterpillars only eat certain things. For example the monarch looks for milkweed, the gulf fritillary lays her eggs on passion vine

Now the swallowtail caterpillar is interesting, it basically looks like crap, bird crap to be exact. This is a defense mechanism, what bird wants to eat something that looks likes poop. Right now I have 4 of these guys on my wild lime. I am so excited about this. I hope these grow to adulthood and come back and continue the cycle in my backyard. Oh and the bird is one of the ibis that shows up now and again and eats the bugs in my yard, I am sure they are enjoying my chemical free yard, and helping me by eating the bugs and leaving behind some natural fertilizer.

The pond

The pond was the real start of the whole thing. My son wanted a natural pond that would attract frogs and dragonfly larvae to it.

First my son researched and we decided on a rigid plastic form since we have 3 dogs and if a dog fell in a pond made with just plastic liner they might rip it. Since one has fallen in it twice, that was a good idea. One weekend my husband and my son dug a hole and put it in the ground. They filled it, and we put some pea gravel in it the next day. First mistake, we didn't clean it enough, it was loaded with sand. We had to take it back out of the ground to completely clean. Of course this meant draining it, Luckily only 125 gallons and we had a pump.

After filling it again, and using well washed gravel, we needed to think of plants. At first my son didn't want a pump, he later learned we needed one in it to keep it clear, and that it didn't disturb the wildlife he hoped to attract.

Our trip to the local water garden store, we came away shocked. Water lilies cost fifty dollars and unless we wanted to spend a few thousand dollars, they weren't really interested in helping us.

The next stop was a local pet store where we found some aquarium plants for a few dollars. We later found some at Lowe's, even a water lily for ten dollars. The best place we found was a mail order place called Tricksters, they have great stuff, good prices and quick shipping. We buy a biological clearing product from them that doesn't harm the snails that hitched a ride into the pond on our first plants.

I surprised Ian one day with three dollars worth of feeder guppies, despite a really cold spell the day after they went into the pond most survived. We now have a breeding population and any mosquito larvae that happens to hatch is history.

After 5 months we are still learning how to mantain it, we have had two episodes of algae but now it seems to be staying clear, the plants are growing like crazy, and we are seeing lots of frogs around it. One day we even saw a huge heron, but it didn't come back since our guppies were not worth eating.

Here are a few pictures of the frogs and eggs in the pond.

The Butterfly Garden

I planted the butterfly garden to meet one of the requirements of the National Wildlife Backyard Habitat program. It provides food for the butterflies, it also is proving a lot of habitat for the lizards who hide in it, and who hunt some of the other bugs that hang out there.

The main plants in it are the porter weeds, at least one kind is native to Florida, and they thrive without a lot of water once established. Another one is the sunshine mimosa which is a native sensitive plant which closes when you touch it. It is so pretty with it's pink blossoms that look like poms poms. We also have a native coreopsis, or tick seed plant. That is new, but I think it is going to do great.

Besides the natives, we have pentas, a turnera, I love that one, but it only blooms early in the morning. The bees just love that one, they roll in it. They also love the anise hyssop. I have to admit, I love this plant, the leaves make great tea.

We also have several other areas that are being slowly planted as money allows. We have passion vines that are attracting gulf frittilary . I am having a hard time though explaining to people that I want the caterpillars to eat the leaves, and no I don't want to know a good spray. That seems to be the hardest thing for a lot of people to understand.

Beginnings

Hi, I live in Florida and I just had my yard certified by the National Wildlife Federation. I am pretty proud of that accomplishment, but most of the credit goes to my 12 year old son. Back in March he decided he really wanted to build pond for his science project, and we started researching the net. Most places told up how to keep the frogs and the wildlife out of the pond, but that is not what he wanted for his pond. While researching we found information on ponds and wildlife at the National Wildlife site and realized that we could certify our yard with some work. We started on a butterfly garden by putting in beds with flowers and as many native plants as we could find. We put in some bird feeders, we already had a few large trees. My son is a reptile lover so we had to build a brush pile for our anoles and black racers to hide. Step by step we made our yard a lot more friendly to wildlife, including putting a few bird baths in the yard. We started seeing more butterflies, we had host plants and started getting caterpillars on the plants and watched them turn into butterflies. More on the garden later