What a great weekend! The sun was out! Honestly, it would have been a good day, any day with the sun out, but what makes it great, was that we had our first Milkweed for Monarchs Workshop. Participants registered for this free event and they sowed seeds in a pot of soil to take home with them.
Milkweed is the host plant for Monarch butterflies. The butterflies need this plant to leave eggs. Those eggs turn into beautiful caterpillars who then will munch on the leaves of milkweed until they are so stuffed that they turn into a chrysalis and await to transform in to “beautiful <monarch> butterflies” (anyone seen Bug’s Life? Cue the scene with Heimlich, that adorable caterpillar, who turns into a “beautiful Butterfly”)
This ‘Little’ event will hopefully turnout some great milkweed this summer for our Monarchs that will be coming up from Mexico then ultimately sending their offspring down to Mexico. Unfortunately, Monarch numbers are so very that they were almost put on the endangered list this year. We all need to do our part to help this species survive. What can you do? Plant milkweed. It’s easy.
Grab some seeds, find a good spot that they will grow (swamp milkweed likes wet areas) (common milkweed likes more well drained soil) There are other milkweeds too! Look for the botanical name- Asclepias. Sprinkle seeds in those areas, cover lightly with soil (1/4”) and let them be. They need the cold for the seeds to germinate, so it’s easy-breezy- nothing special needed. By the way, the flowers of the milkweed are great for other pollinators too!
Any questions, please call or message! We are here to help!
Christy
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