Garden Experiments
For the love of gardening and wildlife habitat
Insect life in your garden is plentiful - butterflies, bees, wasps, caterpillars, and more. Some of these insects are beneficial and some are harmful to your garden, but we have to learn to live with them all. Learn about some of the insects in your garden!
Have you ever heard of mothing? Really, it's a thing. If you are familiar with birding, mothing is quite similar, though apparently a lot easier. With birding, you have to go out and seek the birds but with mothing, well, you turn on a light at night and wait for the moths to come to you. There are some absolutely stunning moths out there. …
Continue Reading about The Stunning Beauty of a Moth – Moths from My Backyard
Our December weather has been unusual this year. It took a long time before our first freeze and then we've had a couple of days here and there that were in the 70's. But, as always, after warm winter weather, a bad storm follows. Because of the bouts of warmer temperatures, I've had some fun visitors to my garden that we wouldn't normally see …
Have you seen an assassin bug in your garden? I don’t know how I never noticed these little insects during the years I have been gardening, but they just never registered on my radar. A friend recently posted about being stung by one of these, and that very same day, I realized that I had taken a photograph of a juvenile assassin bug. Are …
Continue Reading about How The Assassin Bug Is Good for Your Garden
It is just the worst part of gardening. I mean it, the worst. The bugs. My former biology teachers would scold me for saying “bugs” and not insects, but that’s what we call them. I appreciate beneficial insects in the garden - the praying mantises, ladybugs, spiders, and even bees and wasps that can sting. But here in the Deep South, we are just …
Continue Reading about Don’t Let the Bad Bugs Spoil Your Outdoor Fun
You can attract Gulf fritillary butterflies to your yard and garden by providing food plants (flowers), caterpillar host plants, water, and shelter for the butterflies. Here are some tips for the plants to include in your garden for Gulf fritillaries. Gulf fritillary butterflies (Dione vanillae -- formerly Agraulis vanillae) are orange, black, …
Continue Reading about How to Attract Gulf Fritillary Butterflies to Your Garden
Many of the flowering plants I grow in my yard attract butterflies by providing food for them or their larvae. It always makes me smile to see a butterfly flitting by or resting on a bloom. My neighbors probably think I'm crazy when they hear me say "hello, beautiful" to the butterflies, but they always seem like fancy ladies visiting my garden. …
