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.