I decided, the black-thumb that I am, to put in a butterfly garden outside the homeschool classroom window (ie formal dining room window) for us to gaze upon and learn from as we work. Read: beautiful distraction. I also have high hopes to turn my black thumb into a green thumb. We shall see, but I am hopeful! After all, we do have children now capable of pulling weeds. Yea! I am sure that our neighbors are THRILLED that the dirt pile that was in this particular flower bed now resembles something pretty and recognizable. :)
This past weekend, now that Upwards Basketball is over, Chris did some research and then we spent a considerable amount of time at our local Ace Hardware Garden Center with a most helpful staff in their butterfly garden section (really!) and invested in some flowers and a bird bath and got to work. Before you wonder about the bird bath, apparently butterflies need places to rest and some water. More on that later…
Here are the results. Keep in mind that we are no way gardening design experts and I will be super excited if these things grow and flower and stay alive, much less draw butterflies. I really am determined turn my thumb from black to green.
One of the pretty flowers we put in...
This flower is my favorite - it'll have a pretty pink bloom and it smells like, hmmm, citrus tea I think? Love it.
Then this morning while doing some school work, we look outside and see not one but two birds enjoying the bird bath! I ran to get the camera and got the following shots:
Our first bird visitor, preparing for his morning bath
I'm divin' in, I'm goin' deep, in over my head, I'm gonna be...
How fun is that?! We had a ball watching the birds. No butterflies yet but if I were a butterfly I’m not sure I’d get near that craziness. Our plan is for Chris to get a couple of large rocks to put in the garden as well – warm resting places for the butterflies also.
Very cool, sweetie! At the Butterfly Conservatory that Nana and I went to at Niagara Falls, they set out slices of citrus fruits and the butterflies sat very still on these to eat. I don’t know what else the citrus would attract down there in the sub-tropics and outside a controlled environment, but maybe it will attract the butterflies. If it was a sweet fruit like apples, it may attract bees and flies and such, so maybe the citrus won’t attract them…? Love, Pa
Looks great Tara & Chris! Great shot of the bird!
So beautiful! Way to step out and try something new my Friend. It’s also way cool how you’re letting your kids see you & Chris learning as you’re teaching! :0) I bet the kids are loving it. Sam is my little farmer- seeing him excited about growing things just warms my heart. Makes me think of a framed poem and picture that someone gave my Daddy years ago with the saying: He who plants a seed beneath the sod and waits to see believes in God. Looking forward to seeing how even more lovely that project of yours will be in a few weeks when everything’s mature and blooming!!!
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T, this is so neat! I never heard of a ‘butterfly’ garden so I’ll have to research it too. We are a bit late again, but dh and I (mostly him though!) are hoping to get started with our veggie garden soon….last year was our first time and it went okay, we hope to get it more fruitful this year and figure better ways, still organic, to keep bugs and birds away!