Today in Our Gardens

 Today in Our Garden

2024

This post was a long time in coming...I am proud to announce that I have completed my graduate coursework and now have a Master's in Applied Nutrition! What better a way to celebrate than to walk around outdoors with my camera! 

• Hummingbirds are still in NJ visiting our feeders and their favorite blooms, including cannas and salvias. 
• The best fruits we grew this year were two varieties of figs and Petit Moineau heirloom tomatoes.
  

It was great to discover a robust and healthy monarch caterpillar in Harry's meadow!! This was the first one we've seen all season. My guess is the reduction in insects could be from people's use of systemic pesticides and insect spraying. Some insect reduction could be from our hungry Mt Laurel lizards! Lizzy's like bugs but wouldn't eat monarch larva, since monarchs are poisonous.

The incredible passion vines have taken over our vegetable garden! Fruits looking like limes are now dangling all over the place.

We missed the veggie market on Saturday, but enjoyed a walk around the Burlington County Agricultural Center's community garden plots. The above pollinator photo was taken in their herb garden located near their farmhouse where they do the cooking demos.

Hopefully, my next post will be sooner rather than later!

Best for good health and happiness,

Diana 

Blog post and photos Copyright (C) Wind. All rights reserved.

Monarch Migration underway! Today in our NJ garden a Monarch was born! #WindPhotography

Monarch Migration Underway

Today, September 23rd in our New Jersey Fall garden, a beautiful Monarch butterfly was born! All a monarch needs is Milkweed for mama Monarch to lay her eggs on and for caterpillars to munch on before their magical metamorphosis. It can be a small area in your front or back yard that you do not mow. Native plants like Common Milkweed can be encouraged to grow there and viola, you will soon be supporting habitat for Monarch's!

I noticed a sea-foam-green, opaque, chrysalis in our Milkweed meadow on September 11th and was watching it and photographing it daily, while counting down until the big day. According to Journey North, the chrysalis stage takes 8-15 days; this miracle arrived just as expected.

Last night I noticed that the chrysalis was starting to turn blackish at the bottom. The chrysalis eventually turns transparent and the butterfly's vibrant wing colors of orange and black can be seen. When this happens you know that the butterfly will emerge soon. 

Sure enough, the monarch butterfly ripped through the clear, thimble-sized chrysalis this morning! What wasn't expected was for it to arrive on my birthday! Yahoo!! What a great gift! It all happened before 9 am. I was glad that the timing worked out to be hours before the rain storm.

According to Journey North, most Monarch's are born in the spring and summer and live for only 2 to 6 weeks. This late summer/fall Monarch butterfly lives longer and it will migrate all the way from our front yard milkweed meadow in New Jersey and fly 2,000 miles to overwinter in Mexico.

Monarch's born in the Fall are the special generation that migrate to Mexico. See the links below to see my photos on Fine Art America and to learn more about this popular endangered butterfly.

Happy Fall!

Related Links 

Sightings Flowing In

Monarch Lifecycle

Link to my photo of Monarch Chrysalis

Link to Monarch Water Bottle photo

Blog post and photos Copyright(C) Wind. All rights reserved.

Monarch Butterfly sighting in Mt. Laurel NJ in our backyard on Mexican Sunflowers!

photo by Diana Wind

Fall Monarch Butterfly 

Sighting 

in Mt. Laurel, NJ

Another adult Monarch Butterfly was seen on our Mexican Sunflowers this afternoon. I reported the sighting on JourneyNorth's statistics data collection. Report your sightings; citizen scientists make an important contribution to the understanding of monarchs and their incredible life cycle and migration.

We also refilled our hummingbird feeders today with fresh nectar. I wasn't sure if any hummingbirds were still around,,, they are! We had a female visiting at the red cannas that border our veggie garden just after refilling the feeders. So glad that I did.

Happy Gardening and Hummingbird and Monarch watching!
Grow a patch of Milkweed and Monarch butterflies will come.

Related Links
Amazing Year for Eastern Monarch Population

Blog post and photo Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.

More Monarch Butterflies emerged in our NJ garden! #monarchmigration #gardenchat

photo by Harry Wind - edited by Diana Wind

Dorian was born! 

Dorian's chrysalis bobbed back and forth beneath a protective milkweed leaf as winds from Hurricane Dorian passed us along the Jersey coast after battering the Bahamas. As days passed by and the winds passed, Mother nature's course continued. The leaf started curling and browning. It probably wasn't the best idea to form a chrysalis under a milkweed leaf.  Amazingly, no other caterpillars ate that leaf and this story has a happy ending.

Dorian was born! As the sun warmed the morning air, this beautiful Monarch butterfly crawled out of the chrysalis. Nearby, another beauty did too. Yes, two more adult Monarchs to join the 2019 Monarch migration.

Harry noticed that they literally hung out around their chrysalis' mid-morning for a few hours while their wings dried. Learning about the amazing life cycle of Monarch butterflies has been the highlight of our summer. Dorian took 15 days to eclose (emerge). All I can say is, plant Milkweed and they will come. 

Happy Monarch Watching!
Photo and blog post Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.

@monarchwatch @SaveOurMonarchs @journeynorthorg Our milkweed meadow monarch watch update #monarchbutterfly

Our Milkweed Meadow

Monarch Report

My last post talked about the many monarch caterpillars we have this summer thanks to allowing milkweed to grow in our front yard. In the USA, monarch butterfly populations have been declining rapidly due to habitat loss of mainly milkweed. Monarch butterflies need milkweed to survive. We grow it just for the monarchs.

We love milkweed's pleasant fragrance; it's a native plant. And, you do not need a green thumb to grow it. Any homeowner can grow it. Ours grows in a small area that we don't mow or water - basically, a mini (pocket) meadow.

This morning I went out to look for a monarch caterpillar that I noticed Sept. 2nd, hanging under a milkweed leaf in the classic "J" shape - shown in the top photo. And, sure enough, the caterpillar must have shed it's skin soon after I saw it and produced an outer green protective, thimble-sized, pupa (chrysalis) in perfect form. 

Wow! Super exciting to see; and, beautiful too. I never realized chrysalis have a sparkly gold band at the top. I also discovered another chrysalis hanging from a branch in a nearby shrub. 

When metamorphosis is complete, a spectacular monarch butterfly will emerge and join the others in a captivating fall migration. These special, fourth generation, monarch butterflies live the longest. This generation of south-bound butterflies travel over 2,000 miles to their over-wintering destination high up in the mountains of Central Mexico. And, when winter is over, they turn around and fly back to the USA - absolutely an amazing journey.

Updates: 9/15/19- The good news is the chrysalis under the milkweed leaf is still hanging. The bad news is that the leaf is shriveling up and dying now and won't last much longer. ...Come on butterfly... come on!! I just saw a monarch butterfly, but it wasn't this one. I have been watching 2 other chrysalis too; 3 in all. The one in the sun on a shrub branch has beads of sweat on it and you can see the darker butterfly wings inside! 

9/16/19- Guess What? Harry said the chrysalis on the shrub was dark in color this morning. By the time I got home from work, later in the day, the monarch was gone! The other 2, including the chrysalis on the dying milkweed leaf, have turned darker in color and look ready now too. My bet is sometime in the morning. I also saw another caterpillar! The Monarch life cycle is fascinating.

Related Links
Journey South
Monarch Butterflies Migrate 3,000 miles  
Blog post and photos Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.

@monarchwatch Success! Monarch caterpillars all over our milkweed meadow. Yay! #savethemonarchs

Grow a Milkweed Meadow 
for Monarch Success!

Our pocket meadow is proving to be a huge success! Harry's Meadow covers a small piece of our front lawn that we decided not to mow. With a little encouragement and select weeding, common milkweed is flourishing. Milkweed leaves are where monarch butterflies lay their eggs. When monarch caterpillars emerge, they are at the table of their only food source - milkweed. 

A few weeks ago we enjoyed watching and photographing monarch butterflies. We have had a banner year for butterflies - more than ever! Some of the attraction may be that our yard now has many plants that are good nectar sources, including: Milkweed, Joe Pye weed, Echinacea, Liatris and Mexican Sunflowers. 

A few weeks ago, monarch butterflies mated and laid their eggs. Now, we are seeing lots of monarch caterpillars (larvae stage) on the milkweed plants eating the leaves. 

These feeding monarch caterpillars take 10-14 days to molt (5-stages) and grow before leaving the caterpillar larva stage. 

After the larva stage comes the pupa stage, when their chrysalis hangs camouflaged somewhere. It takes another 10-14 days to develop into beautiful monarch butterflies. These late summer monarchs are the 4th generation that join the monarch migration to over-winter in Central Mexico!

Our meadow didn't start out as all milkweed. The area has been invaded by Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), an undesirable, invasive weed. We continue to pull it out to make room for milkweed to spread.  

Along with monarch caterpillars we also have lots of orange milkweed bugs. We decided to leave the bugs alone and let them do their thing. They seem to be coexisting on the milkweed plants along with the feasting caterpillars. Yesterday, I stopped counting at 11 caterpillars and one monarch butterfly!

I have been looking around the meadow for where the caterpillars may go to form their monarch chrysalis for metamorphosis. I noticed a caterpillar hanging straight down from a dying Queen Anne's lace plant. Could this be the chrysalis spot for that caterpillar?

In searching for more information I came across the links below that I found helpful. And, I joined and reported our sightings on Journey North.

Happy Gardening and Monarch Watching!

Related Links
Monarch Life Cycle
Monarch Biology
Advocate to your elected officials

update 9/2/19: the hanging caterpillar from the Queen Anne's lace plant was dead. Not sure what killed it. The good news is that today I did spot a live monarch caterpillar going into the pupa stage underneath a milkweed leaf.

Blog post and photos Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.Top photo of monarch caterpillar on leaf edge was also posted on Journey North who was given permission for use.

Surround your home with gardens that benefit #pollinators #nativeplants #Clematisvirginiana

Clematis virginiana

Virgin's Bower

 Hardiness Zone: 6a, 6b, 7a, 7b

Over the past few years we've been transforming our yard and gardens to feature more native plants to feed and attract wildlife. This beautiful native plant just appeared in our yard and gardens a few years ago. At first I thought of it as just a non-wanted weed and always pulled it out. Last summer I spotted the plant for sale at Bowman's Hill - a native garden supplier. I thought to myself, "We have that!" Their sign identified it as Clematis virginiana - also called Virgin's Bower or Devil's Darning Needles. 

We decided to let our free native grow. It spread here and there around our yard. Why let it? Because pollinators desperately need more essential food and habitat in neighborhoods. Non-native plants, such as Sweet Autumn Clematis, have replaced many native plants in home gardens. 

Non-native Sweet Autumn Clematis is also called Virgin's Bower. We have that vine too. They are both beautiful, but now I am pulling out some Sweet Autumn and and letting more native clematis grow. They both are vigorous growers. You can tell them apart by the plant's leaves. Sweet Autumn Clematis has round leaves and Clematis virginiana has toothed or jagged edged leaves.

Twining Clematis virginiana has fragrant, white, feathery flowers. The blooms appear late summer into fall: August through October. Pollinating insects like bees and butterflies benefit from the nectar.

Clematis virginiana will climb and cascade over anything including other plants, arbors, trellises, or fences. The vine is delicate and easy to pull up if it grows where you decide you don't want it.

Photo Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.
Related Links
For more information see: Jersey Friendly Yards 
Why Native Plants Matter

@BranRiverMuseum Brandywine Conservancy Native Garden Tour recap #nativegardens #gardenchat

Brandywine Conservancy

Native Garden Tour

This post gives you a brief online tour of Brandywine Conservancy's Native Garden Tour to six diverse gardens. Only we never made it to all six! We made it to half.

The self-guided tours opened Noon to 5 pm, July 23, 2017. We drove our own car and used our GPS to follow a map that was provided to each location. We sure could have used more time as there was so much to see and enjoy.

Our first stop was to LeeAnn and Tim's garden in West Chester, PA. Upon arrival, we were given a map and plant list of their yard. Tall native shrubs, trees and flowering plants, such as: Phlox, Ecineacea and Rudbeckia lined curvy garden paths and beds. 

Along with compost bins and rain barrels, their small urban ecosystem sure beats the typical rectangle backyard with grass to mow. We saw many birds and butterflies.

Along their back fence, Cup-plant (Silphium) was in bloom. Now we know what to expect when ours blooms. The cheery, small, yellow sunflower-like blooms were clustered at the top of the tall plants vs.  single blooms seen in similarly tall Jerusalem Artichoke plants.

Zigzag Goldenrod (Solidago flexicaulis)

USDA zones 3-8, grows 2-4', shade loving

Other plants that caught my attention included: Zigzag Goldenrod, Sweet Fern, Mountain Mint and Winterberry.

Sweet Fern (Comptonia peregrina)
Full sun to light shade. USDA zones 2 to 6

Leaves have a pleasant fragrance when crushed

Larval host for Grey Hairstreak butterfly

The second home we visited was also located in West Chester. We drove up a hillside and past a meadow of 300 acres of protected land. When we arrived at Nancy and Barney's home, Barney and his 2 friendly dogs walked down their driveway to meet us. 

A Brandywine greeter was sitting under an umbrella at the entrance. She provided us with some plant info and an impressive map that the home owners had created by landscape architects. 

The large property featured many native plantings along pathways and meadows. We parked in front of a courtyard meadow. We walked along a stone path in between native plants to their backyard.

Their beautiful home was built with a metal roof (how often do you see a metal roof?), large stone fireplace and lots of windows to view the scenery. Their stone patio with pergola (shown below) looked like a lovely spot to relax and enjoy the outdoors.

Showy white blooms of Bottlebrush buckeye shrubs lined the woodland edge.

 Bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora)

Part shade to full shade. USDA zones 4 to 8

As we walked around the house back to our car, we passed a grove of Redbuds loaded with hanging pods. The pods look like peas because the tree is a member of the pea family.

Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis)

pink blooms early Spring 

USDA zones 6a-7b, full sun to shade, grows 20-30'

Eastern native tree

Our next stop was a little bit south to Kennett Square to tour Margot's property certified by SITES (sustainable landscape design). Her 1.69 acre property is the only SITES-certified residential property on the East Coast.

She had lots of sculptures and artistic touches throughout her sustainable landscape that she created as a Landscape Architect. 

I loved the Ironwork by her friend, Eric Zandotti. Some of his work was for sale. We bought a small vase-like metal gazing globe holder for our garden. I think he also made the bottle trees that we saw (shown above).

Green roof Sustainable storm water capture and reuse
chain into fish pond

Needless to say, we ended up taking our time walking around the hillside vegetation checking out her water features, living roof, etc. We ran out of time to go see the other 3 properties! I'm sure they were just as interesting and beautiful.

By 4 o'clock we were ready to go indoors for a break. We made our way back to Brandywine River Museum and ended our great day with a walk through the Andrew Wyeth in Retrospect works.

Hope you enjoyed the tour recap
Happy Gardening!
Related Links
Kennett Square House for SITES

Blog post and photos Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.

Cumberland County Photo Tour of Private Wildlife Gardens South Jersey #GardenCuizine #gardenchat #getoutside

Cumberland County Photo Tour 

of Private Wildlife Gardens

August 2015

with Pat Sutton, naturalist 

and wildlife garden educator

Photos alone can not capture the beauty of nature. Getting outdoors remains the best way to experience the smells and sights of pollinators in action and to learn about where our food comes from, native plants, birds, insects and the importance of preserving open spaces and caring for our precious environment. 

Watch for additional photos that will be added during the next few weeks 

Happy Gardening!

photos Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.

@NWF Gardening for Pollinators #GardenCuizine #gardenchat

Gardening for Pollinators

private garden #1

Yesterday we had the pleasure of meeting new friends and touring wildlife-friendly, private home gardens in South Jersey, sponsored by Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River. 

Our Cumberland County tour of private wildlife gardens began in the parking lot at the base of the Maurice River Bridge. Tall marsh grasses lined the river. The shining bright sun felt hot. When we arrived, our tour guide, Pat Sutton, was there to greet us.

Being an experienced naturalist and wildlife garden educator, Pat provided the group information on Gardening for Pollinators. She also gave us an informative itinerary with directions and information written by each gardener about their wildlife garden habitats.

Harry and I arrived early, giving us time to meet Pat and browse through a few select gardening books. The eager group of about 25 Master Gardeners and garden enthusiasts carpooled to each garden. First we traveled to Leesburg then on to Port Norris and Bridgeton, ending at a breath-taking riverside garden in Millville, NJ.  

At Janet's garden in Leesburg, hummingbirds and butterflies were everywhere. Surrounding her pool, instead of grass, were garden walks bordered by flowers that included masses of red salvias - more than any of the other gardens we visited. No wonder she gets so many hummingbirds!

Other blooms included: Tropical Milkweed, Agastache, Coral Honeysuckle, Joe Pye weed, Echinacea, Rudbeckia tribola and Verbena bonariensis. In early spring, she scattered 4+ large packets of mixed zinnia seeds that grew into a beautiful patch of colorful flowers that attract many pollinators. 

Along the fence was another butterfly magnet: bright orange Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia rotundifolia) growing over 5-feet tall. An easy-to-grow annual that you can start from seeds as early as February, according to Janet. We only have one Tithonia growing in our garden, thanks to a gardening friend (thanks Linda!!). Seeds can be harvested and saved for next year. 

yum yum milkweed!

In a garden bed near a rain barrel against the house many hungry monarch butterfly caterpillars were devouring the foliage of milkweed, the only plant they can eat. We also let milkweed grow wild in our yard just for monarchs.

We had a hard time pulling ourselves away from every garden, so much so that we ran over our time schedule and missed PEEK Preserve, Natural Lands Trust garden. Seriously, we could have spent an entire day at each location. We visited 6 gardens, all focused on gardening for pollinators and NOT using pesticides.

We've done garden seed swaps in the past, but never a tour of more than one garden at a time. My head is still spinning with all the new garden ideas and contact information! Special thanks to Pat, CU, and all the gardening hosts and hostesses who shared their gardens and expertise with us.  

I'll be making a few continuing blog posts about more NJ wildlife gardens; including, Barn Studio of Art. Check back for added photos and related posts.

Happy Gardening! 
Related Links
How to Create a Hummingbird and Butterfly Garden by Pat Sutton 
Recommended Nectar Plants by Pat Sutton 
Garden for Wildlife

Blog post and photos Copyright (C) Wind. All rights reserved.

@RutgersNJAES @birdsblooms @Garden4Wildlife @pollinators Cumberland County SJ #gardenchat #GardenCuizine

Stay tuned for photos and video featuring wildlife friendly private gardens in Cumberland County. Our tour guide will be NJ native plant expert, naturalist, birder and book author - Pat Sutton. According to Pat's blog, many of the private home gardens were planted with wildlife in mind, designed to attract butterflies, moths, hummingbirds and other birds, as well as insect pollinators. And, to enjoy wholesome foods such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains we need important pollinators!

Hummingbirds pollinate wildflowers as they move flower to flower. Late August into September is peak hummingbird migration time. We'll be pointing our cameras towards the birds and blooms and promise to zoom in on ruby-throated hummers as they visit their favorite nectar plants.

This South Jersey Cumberland County Wildlife tour was planned for Master Gardeners by Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River (CU). 
Related Links
Pat and Clay Sutton 
Hummingbird Garden Nectar Plants by Patricia Sutton
Rutgers Master Gardeners Program
Photo and blog post Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.