By Staff
A gardener doesn't realize when we plan and grow a garden, a garden is about more than just growing flowers.
And it isn't all for just our enjoyment, either.
Gardening takes on a whole another purpose – a habitat for butterflies.
A garden attracts all manner of insects, butterflies, birds and bees.
They make our gardens their homes. A garden full of flitting color, buzzing and chirping.
My grandson Ethan and I are learning about butterflies, not only for their beauty, but to learn about their wondrous, complex life cycles, too.
I bought a book about them.
Its title is "The Life Cycles of Butterflies" by Judy Burris and Wayne Richards.
Almost everything from egg to maturity, a visual guide to 23 common garden butterflies.
We now will be able to look for and identify them. Be they egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and the emerged fully-grown adult butterfly itself.
Not only will Ethan be discovering and learning about butterflies, I will be receiving a very priceless gift myself of experiencing the wondrous, magical lives of butterflies from a child's perspective.
This spring I plan on planting a wide row of dill, cosmos and the old-fashioned favorite, zinnias.
Not only will these flowers be a fine source of nectar (food), they will also be great host (place to lay eggs and feed caterpillars) plants, too.
I can also sneak a little fresh dill now and then for a recipe or two.
The zinnias will also do nicely as a support for the dill and cosmos as the wind plays havoc with the spindly stems of the dill and cosmos.
And as these flowers will be combined and planted in one area, Ethan and I have but to find two easy chairs to enjoy the show.
The butterfly counts not months but moments and has time enough.
– Rabindranath Tagore
Hindu poet, mystic