Garden of the Galaxy

After all the rain we have had, the cisterns are full. The top cistern has a hole about two-thirds the way up and you can see where the water has leaked out and gone straight into the top garden basin. The lower cistern was full to the top and overflowing. Since we have a forecast of lots of rain this weekend, I have been working today to lower the water levels a bit. While watering, I saw one monarch butterfly flitter by. It's so nice to see them around!

First I must say I am not much of an entomologist, so I am not even going to try to nail down the species of insects (and arthropods) I have seen. But unsurprisingly, as I began watering the butterfly garden every day, I began to see more and more insects. The first ones were beetles, many of which resembled cockroaches, and ants. Ants are everywhere! In this first picture you can see some beetles that some other creature ripped the heads from and devoured. Isn't nature a beautiful thing? And then I began to see more and more predators, like crickets, spiders, and mantises. The most spectacular insect we have is a tarantula hawk. These are HUGE wasps with black bodies and orange wings. Their sting is apparently VERY painful, but luckily they are hard to get angry and most of the time they are just eating nectar from flowers like bees. However, I also watched one investigate a burrow in the garden, presumably looking for a tarantula. Female tarantula hawks will p...

Apparently I had missed a cocoon in some of the evergreen milkweed, because this morning I found a butterfly at the base of the bush, wings still too wet to fly. It had just hatched, or eclosed (a new word I learned to describe when a butterfly leaves the chrysalis). I looked around and soon found the remains of the chrysalis higher up. I broke off the leaf  so I could get a really good photo. And then it was time to wait and watch. I found the butterfly about 8:45 am and watched it until it flew away a bit before 10 am. I took several videos. The first is mostly it just clinging to the leaves while the morning breeze moves it around. (Since uploading the video is not working, let's try this URL: https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipP1GoQBjKKd6sw-M3vLn61EH-hwrqvmkPukrkgl ) As the sun reached it around 9:45, the butterfly began to flap its wings, testing them out. Then it took a first little flight and landed on a wood chip.  I picked up the wood chip it wa...

The last chrysalis is still there, but it is not looking good. The outside is a brown, papery husk. The closest looking image I could find of one like it were chrysalises that died due to cold, but it does make me suspicious that something has gone wrong. I think dehydration may be the problem. The garden did not get watered for five days due to the long July 4th weekend, and it has been very hot and dry for weeks. Our second chrysalis may have failed and dried out. I think all of our plants survived, though! http://monarchbutterflygarden.net/common-monarch-diseases-prevention/  has some information about dehydration and monarchs: 6. Dehydration I realize this isn’t a disease, but it’s a far too common problem that is taking precious monarchs away from us before they bloom into beautiful butterflies. Dehydrated monarchs can get stuck inside their chrysalides causing deformation and death. They may also have issues forming them. Prevention Tips: spritz milkweed and cate...

One of the purposes of this garden is to capture and use rainwater, not only that which falls from the sky but also that caught by the large cisterns we have on campus. The cisterns have been there for years but no one has ever made good use of the water until now (as far as I know). There are two cisterns close to the butterfly garden, and both were about half full at the beginning of June when I started using them. If you place your hand on the side of the cistern, you can feel a temperature difference where the water is. In the hot afternoons when bright sunlight is shining on it, the metal feels cooler where the water is. In the mornings, it feels warmer. The water level is now about a foot above the concrete platform, and the water pressure is lessening. I really hope we get some good thunderstorms soon! Then we can see how the garden works at collecting water in the basins, and we can get more water into the cisterns from the roofs.

On Friday morning, June 30th, I found only one cocoon left. I kept an eye out for an adult butterfly while I watered but never saw one. The second one will probably emerge over this weekend when I can't get on campus. Good luck to you, butterflies! Last cocoon left.