I spent most of my time in August messing around with Monarch Butterflies and not a whole lot in the garden with the plants. I was lucky enough to get a few Milkweed plants with Monarch eggs on them, so that became my obsession. My plan is to raise a few caterpillars this year, and create a nice milkweed patch for them to lay eggs in this season, and then hopefully they will return next year and lay eggs again.
I am really hoping to be more successful with the Monarchs than I am with the birdhouse gourds. The vines themselves grew fine, but what was supposed to be large gourdes big enough for a family of flamingos, were barely big enough for a humming bird. If the gourd even made it. I am pretty certain my issue was overcrowding the plants, putting four in one pot along with marigolds, as well as not fertilizing regularly. I was too preoccupied with the monarchs to keep up with the gourds.
With the lessons I learned this year I am going to try the birdhouse gourds again next year. I will give them a bit more room and definitely more nutrients. The loofah I grew along side it did slightly better, but certainly not anything to write about. Can I just note that the Monarchs did great?
The below picture looks nice as a picture, but I can barely walk through this yard. I can’t wait to trim it all back.
July In The Garden