Fall 2012

After a long season of average vegetable gardening, I have decided to establish a butterfly garden. This past summer, my vegetable garden yielded tomatoes, peppers and okra, but the nematodes eventually got the best of the okra during the height of the season. After some research, I learned that mariogolds deter nematodes, so I planted a cover crop of mariolds surrounding the okra stalks. The butterflies love the marigolds, so what started as a nematode battleground has turned into a beautiful marigold and butterfly garden. I have at least ten different species visiting every day (most of which I can not get pictures of due to their shyness).

African Marigolds growing to combat nematodes in the ground next to the raised bed. (sticks are where okra used to grow but died due to nematodes)

 

 

 

It is November and I am pulling out weeds and old Marigolds and Zinnias from my raised bed (3 feet by 15 feet).  Many of the Zinnias had a fungus and it was necessary to clean out most of the plants.  The next picture is what it looked like prior to cleaning out the old plants, filling in with new Black Kow and dolomite.

 

Raised bed
 

 

The most two common butterflies that appear every day are the Gulf Fritillary and Zebra Longwing, although I have also seen several types of Skippers, Dorantes, Ocola and Long Tailed, as well as several Sulfurs, Eastern, Palamedes, and Zebra Swallotails.

Zebra Longwing on Allamanda
 

American Painted Lady

Gulf Fritillary on Zinnia