60 Days Until Frost

How did we get to the last day of July so fast? Here at the Stone Wall Garden we can probably count on 60 more frost-free days. If we are very lucky, that could extend to 75. It was only 79 days ago that the garden looked like this.

This tattered Monarch butterfly is a reminder that we are on the down side of the summer. I actually felt a little guilty bothering her to get a picture. She has serious egg laying business to finish before she dies. Soon we will watch beautiful new Monarchs fly over the garden heading south to Mexico.



The first New England Aster blosssoms are beginning to open. While it's true that they bloom for a long time, they are a signal that the purple asters and yellow goldenrod of fall are on the horizon.

Ed is busy clearing weeds where peas and garlic have been harvested, and planting buckwheat, peas, zucchini, kale and lettuce. Who knows how the crops planted now will do? The weather is unpredictable, but it's best to plant something. If you don't fill in the garden soil with something you want to grow, it will fill in with weeds that you don't want. Mother Nature abhors a bare patch of dirt. Weeds will not miss an opportunity. Weed seeds are in the dirt, float on the wind, stick to the fur of animals, and drop from the sky courtesy of the birds.

August and September are wonderful months for the garden. New potatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, broccoli, green beans, lettuce, peppers onions,and beets are there for the picking. Fresh basil, parsley, mint, thyme, rosemary, sweet bay, lemon verbena and French tarrogon wait to make meals exciting.

There are still new flowers yet to bloom. The asters and chrysanthemums are just getting started. I'm still waiting for the closed gentian, the Angelica gigas, the moon flowers and the tuberose.

The second half of the garden 2010 is here. There is still a lot of exciting garden fun to come!

Dead Monarch

These body parts were found in the garden this morning. Teeth marks might show along the inside edge of the lower wing. The life cycle of Monarch butterflies may have allowed this individual a natural death. He may have been dead before he was eaten. I recently saw a brightly colored newly hatched Monarch, but most of those seen are faded and tattered. Their days are nearly over.

The point of the pin marks the location of a scent gland. The wide section of the black line is a gland that only males have. As you might expect, the purpose of the gland is to attract females


We allow milkweed, the food plant of Monarch caterpillars, to grow freely here. The late June scent of milkweed flowers is one of my favorite fragrances. The flowers are popular with many different bees and butterflies. Walking near all of that wildlife is a thrill. With this much milkweed in flower there is enough for all who come but much of the time we see one butterfly chase others away from its chosen flower.


I keep this area mowed until well into July. That extends the milkweed flowering period both for me and the butterflies. Particular Monarch mothers may seek out tender young leaves as a prime location for their eggs. Butterflies have been seen clasping the side of milkweed leaves possibly laying eggs on the underside of the leaves. Soon we should see caterpillars.

It's A Girl?

Today was the day. The monarch emerged sometime after 11:30. We missed the actual event, arriving home in time to take the picture above. What had started out to be a sunny day became over cast and threatening. Strong wind gusts and scattered rain caused us great concern. The butterfly hung on the mallow close to the chrysalis for several hours.



Such a beautiful and complicated creature. This butterfly, born at the stone wall garden, will feed then head south. If she makes it through the entire migration , she will spend the winter in Mexico. We are located near the confluence of two valleys. Topography concentrates the migrating butterflies as they fly over us. We have seen no signs indicating that the migration is underway. For now our butterfly is free to feed on our flowers in preparation for her journey. How she knows this is a mystery to me.



It was after 4:00 when I finally got a chance to catch her with open wings.
Mature males display two dark scent glands visible on the wings. The absence of these markings suggests that ours is female but reproductive organs are incompletely developed at this stage. Whatever the reality we will look for a bright new Monarch tomorrow and wish her well when it is time for her to leave.

We're Watching

We're keeping a very close eye on our Monarch. The amount of time it takes to complete the change depends on the weather, and so we watch.

There are other things to watch in the garden. The hummingbirds are enjoying the cardinal flowers and the trumpet vine. The goldfinches are beginning to feed on the sunflowers so I know the seed is becoming mature.

Ed has been spending so much time keeping the grass mowed that he actually seems to be tired of doing it. Really I think it's just that he has other things he wants to accomplish instead.He still had time to do some weeding . Some more catnip got cut and stripped to dry. A few of the lower leave on some plants had powdery mildew. I think that is a first for catnip.

Monarch For Mexico

An early morning trip to the garden for breakfast strawberries revealed this treasure. A Monarch butterfly caterpillar has taken the next step toward a major change. With luck a butterfly will emerge here in thirty days in time for the migration South. Its placement in a planting bed will allow us to daily monitor the process. If the chosen plant is growing up through the cage protecting the beets, the cage will be cut away to leave the chrysalis undisturbed.

We help the preferred food plant, milkweed, grow here. There are areas where the weeds are mowed to encourage milkweed growth. Cutting the emerging milkweed forces the plants to regrow. Cutting the dominant goldenrod causes it to quit. We have tender young leaves available for late caterpillars now. This year has provided few butterflies. Late frosts and constant rains seem to have reduced the number of many insects. A least two Monarchs found each other and created the next generation. This caterpillar may well have fed on the Asclepias growing in our garden.

The host plant was a gift from Ingaborg. She emigrated to this country from Germany between the two world wars. This source of the plant makes it special to us. The pictured leaf damage shows that it is special to the Japanese Beetles as well. A new stop has been added to our garden walks. Several times a day we will check on progress here. Now we have another concern about September frost.

Sometimes It's Too Late

We have a lot of milkweed here and it follows that we get to see a lot of monarch butterflies. In the fall it's a joyful experience to see them fly over the house and then rise to clear Amy's meadow heading south to Mexico. The whole process is so amazing to me. Mother Nature hedges her bets and eggs laid over a period of weeks hatch out in their own time. But now the nights are cold and sometimes the butterflies get damaged before they hatch. This one hatched out, but couldn't pump up its wings.


This one has beautiful wings but has other parts damaged . We see him flying a little, but Mexico is not in the cards. Part of me wishes they could all make it, but I know that's not how it works. In nature the strong survive and the others usually become prey.


The milkweed seeds are flying on the wind too. Some of them will find a place to grow and some will not. One thing sure the milkweed and the monarch butterflies live and die together.