Name that butterfly!

So now I'm--oh, what's the word?--obsessed with trying to identify the butterflies in our garden so we can find suitable host plants for them. I took the digital camcorder out and filmed a minute or so of three different species that were hanging around, then went to the USGS site (link above) to try to find them. Turns out two of the three were definitely native to Campbell Co.: the Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme) and Bronze Copper (Lycaena hyllus). The third one had dark or black wings with a bright blue accent on the rear of the wings and underneath. I couldn't find that one, even in some adjacent counties (I even checked Hamilton Co. in Ohio), so now I'm obsessed with finding it.

Good host plants for the identified two are: plants in the pea family (Fabaceae) including alfalfa (Medicago sativa), white clover (Trifolium repens), and white sweet clover (Melilotus alba); herbs of the buckwheat family (Polygonaceae) including curly dock (Rumex crispus). I wonder if we could plant some of that stuff in or along the edge of the woods...?

I know I've also seen a Monarch or two (unless it was a Viceroy--they're easy to confuse).

Back to butterflies

So now that the veg garden is nearly complete, Jim and I have begun planning work for the butterfly garden again. We'll be making minor adjustments to the original design to get more ground coverage. I put our saved seeds in the fridge for cold stratifying (about a week), and while they're chilling out we'll weed out the garden. When they're ready we'll overseed the bare areas.

We'll also be planting "host plants" for the butterflies' eggs and caterpillars. I found a good site that lets you know by state (or--if you click on "Checklists"--even by county) the range of butterflies indigenous to your region. Each species name links to information about identification, habitat, what they eat, and good host plants for the young'uns. Plants that seem to have good crossover power include milkweed, clover, butterfly weed, beans and peas. I've also heard good things about parsley and lovage (which, unlike parsley, is a true perennial). Other herbs like sage and rue are also good for those listed in our area, but many butterflies are very particular about what they eat, and they don't always cross over depending on the variety.

A couple of day ago I got another email from Paul Frazier of the Horticulture department saying we should be getting mulch from them pretty soon. Also, we had a really good rain yesterday afternoon.

Oh, one more thing. We noticed that we have (most likely) a mole in the garden. Jim noticed that soil in one corner was spilling out of the box, and it took us putting the soil back in twice in the same spot before we made the connection. Yesterday one square of beets was ruined from something tunneling through it, pushing up most of the beets out of the ground. Little bastard.

hey, straw. soil test

yesterday we put down grass seed. today we put down the straw.

we got our square foot garden samples- about 5 samples taken from a depth of 1 to 5 inches from each of the beds. then we mixed up the samples and dried it out on newspaper. then we took three cups of the dry sample to the extension office down the road in a little plastic container. i gave it to the agent and she told me it would be about three weeks before we got our results from the lab at University of Kentucky.

we watered, and then of course it started to rain.

we have tiny cucumbers, watermelons on the vine-- growing up our trellises.

and we have lots of banana peppers.

there are tomoatoes on the vine as well, but nothing is turning red. the tomatoes arent looking so hot. not sure if its a fungal wilt or if its a nutrient deficiency, but thats why we decided to go get the soil test done.

soil test

there's a $10 soil/growing media test available through the University of Kentucky County Extension. it can test for our special soil mix even. it would tell us where we stand with our nutirients-- including traces like calcium, sulphur, magnesium, and iron... and also tell us our pH. i say we should do it.

fish guts and grass seed

i went up to the garden and i found what remained of our fish emulsion. I applied it to our plants in hopes it might correct whateveter deficiencies may exist... used it all up.

i also bought grass seed but did not put any down yet -- i just didn't have the time to do it.

i found that boron deficiencies can be corrected by applying Borax at a rate of 1 tsp per gallon of water.

bone meal does a garden good

Aaron, to answer your query:
Bone meal is a great source for calcium in the garden-- calcium and phosphourous are the two major elements in bone meal. Limestone contains calcium (carbonate) as well.

fish emulsion is high in nitrogen, so we might go get some of that.

thanks for experimenting with the mulch too. i agree we'll go broke trying to buy it ourselves.

the pictures look great, thanks for posting.