Attracting Butterflies

Since retiring in November, I’ve spent a lot of time in my garden.  I’ve done everything from replacing drip lines to general pruning and shaping of plants.  Everything is thriving and that makes me happy.  I plan to plant a boat load of plants in the fall — I’ve started a new planting bed by the barn which will primarily be lavenders and agastache, which are fragrant and don’t need much water. And, I plan to fill in more spaces in the front flower beds and make some changes in the bird/pollinator bed.

This is a butterfly bush (buddleia) which is very beautiful, very showy, and the nectar attracts butterflies.  However, it is also invasive and not native.  If you really want butterflies in your garden you need to have plants that they like to eat as caterpillars.  Sure, you get some ratty looking, chewed-up, leaves on those plants but you also get lots of butterflies instead of ones that happened to grow up nearby and found your butterfly bush.  The butterfly bush below is particularly showy and I plan to keep it but the others (two in the bird/pollinator bed and three in the front flower bed) are going to be removed in the fall.  I will replace them with something else that attracts butterflies.

I will be adding more coneflowers (Echinacea) since the ones I planted last fall are doing great.  I like to make sure a particular plant is going to do well before investing in a truck load of them.  Coneflowers are a great native flower here in California, much loved by pollinating insects and butterflies.

The new planter I created up by the turnouts behind the barn will be filling up with native and drought resistant plants.  Right now it just has that one beautiful butterfly bush, one agastache and one nepeta.  I’ll be adding more of the agastache and nepeta, iris, milkweed and lavender.  It should be humming next year with happy bees and hummingbirds.  And butterflies.

In the bird and butterfly bed, I have the agastache (hummingbird mint) below and creeping hummingbird trumpet (Zauschneria) going crazy happy.  

Agastache 

Creeping hummingbird trumpet

So far, I’ve seen a lot of butterflies: swallowtail, painted ladies, small blues and buckeyes mostly.  I’m hoping the milkweed I plant will bring monarchs next year.

Score One for the Hawk

The last few days there have been an adult and a juvenile red-tailed hawk soaring over the open fields around the ranch.  I think that Junior is being taught how to hunt but I don’t, of course, know for sure.  But I do enjoy watching them.

This morning I was sitting on the front porch nursing my wounds (but that’s another story) when I heard their distinctive screech — pretty close by.  The dogs, who had been snoozing by my feet, took off barking.

I looked up to see one of the hawks snatch a squirrel from under the oak tree between the driveway and the front pasture.  Whiskey had a front row seat.  The hawk cleared the fence and soared off to the fields, but dropped the squirrel in the pasture.

Sage was pissed.  The hawk took her squirrel (all squirrels are her squirrels) and then dropped it where she couldn’t get it.  Poor Sage.  Kersey came back to the porch and resumed her nap.  Sage came over to me and started complaining, whining and growling, before laying down on the front porch step.

(And my wounds?  I fell off the back of the utility trailer yesterday when I was helping Brett unload some hay.  I fell about three feet onto the cement floor.  No broken bones but some nasty bruising and my back is tweaked.  Of course.)