Tag: gardening tips

Butterfly Gardening by TGU’s Melody Wilson

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Images by Melody Wilson.

Images from TGU’s wholesale nursery.

Images from TGU’s wholesale nursery.

Host Plant & Most Common Visitor

Host Plant & Most Common Visitor

Common nectar plants.

Common nectar plants.

For More Information:

 Please check out:

North American Butterfly Association https://nababutterfly.com/

Texas A&M Harris County http://counties.agrilife.org/harris/files/2011/05/bflygrdn.pdf

Butterflies and Moths of North America  https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/

Author: Melody Wilson

Contact: melody.wilson@thegroundup.com

The warmer months of July and August bring sightings of many different types of butterflies in the Houston area, we can see butterflies and moths almost year-round in Southeast Texas. Starting a butterfly garden can be as easy as planting a variety of colorful flowering plants to attract the feeding adult butterflies. With some planning, your butterfly garden can become a haven for all stages of the butterfly life cycle and multiple species of these beautiful pollinators.

I started on my journey in butterfly gardening when we moved into our new house last July. It took a little bit to wrap my head around planting plants solely to be a food source, but now I’m hooked. I have lost count of the number of pots of Asclepias that I have put in to feed my hungry little cats. 

Our perennial pad at The Ground Up is bursting with pollinator-friendly plants right now, and when I took a short walk through the nursery and saw several different butterfly species in the perennial area without any difficulty, I knew I would be adding to my pollinator paradise.

Life Cycle

 An adult butterfly will lay eggs on a host plant. Once the eggs hatch, the larva (caterpillars) will eat the host plant, often to the point of complete defoliation. Once the caterpillars are large enough, they will pupate and eventually become butterflies. The adult butterflies will feed on nectar from a variety of flowers, mate for the cycle to begin again.

Things to Consider

 A butterfly habitat needs the same basic needs as we do: they require a sheltered area, water, food (for both the larva and adults), and a bright sunny area. Having a row of trees and shrubs will protect the butterflies from the weather and wind.

Your butterfly garden needs a space that gets full sun as most of the plants that attract butterflies are sun-loving.

Placing flat stones, or places for the butterflies to perch and sunbathe in your butterfly garden allows them a resting area where they can raise their body temperature when it is cooler.

The addition of shallow pools or puddles with sand and soil allows them a place to drink. There are no safe pesticides in a butterfly garden. All insecticides are toxic to butterflies and caterpillars.

Plants

 It’s a good idea to become familiar with the different host plants that each species of butterfly prefers so you can attract butterflies you want to see. This is by no means the entire list of Nectar and Host Plants for our area, but a pretty good example to start with. Planting large masses of color, will attract more butterflies, and planting a variety of flowers of different heights with different bloom periods that span throughout the season is the best way to provide a steady supply of nectar for the adult butterflies.

The Underground Secret to a Better Garden

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Mycorrhizal Fungi: 

Let’s talk basics. What exactly is Mycorrhizal Fungi? 

 

The term mycorrhiza refers to the role of the fungi in the plants’ rhizosphere, its root system. (Illustration by Michael Rothman)

 

A Mycorrhiza is a symbiotic association between a fungus and the roots of a vascular host plant. It’s major function being the ability to exchange nutrients between their surroundings and their host plant. A white fungal network called hyphae (resembles roots) is the principal structure for the uptake of many important nutrients in the plant kingdom. The hyphae are only a single cell wide and facilitate nutrient exchanges between the root tip and fungi. While you may see them spread like a web surfacing a decomposing log, they usually remain hidden underground and invisible to us. 

In the Garden

As a gardener, you want to take advantage of this symbiotic relationship that fungi and plants have been developing for millions of years. The key lies in maintaining a healthy community of fungi. One trick is to use caution when dealing with fertilizers and stray away from the use of chemical fertilizers specifically those consisting of phosphorus. Since phosphorus can reach levels that actually discourage the formation of mycorrhizae, avoiding fertilizers with high percentages of the chemical will prevent beneficial microbes from weakening or breaking apart. You can also maintain your soil in prime condition by minimizing disturbances apart from occasional light tilling, weeding and mulching. 

Increasing Beneficial Fungi

One of your main challenges perhaps will be ensuring that this nutrient-infused goodness survives all year round. The fungi that support garden crops are not capable of living or reproducing independently so it is up to us gardeners to ensure we are maintaining and increasing the population of beneficial fungi.

We can start by preventing a decline with simple tricks such as rotating crops within your beds and avoiding empty beds by keeping plants growing at all times. Additionally, you want to take it a step further and consider growing plant rye, oats or hairy vetch. These plants have extensive root systems and readily harbor mycorrhizae. Orchards will serve you well for overwintering fungi because they don’t require as much attention and buffer strips of a grass-and-legume blend will help retain fungi.  

The Benefits

    • Improved plant establishment and growth.
    • Dramatically expand access to moisture and nutrients from the soil. 
    • Increased nutrient and water uptake. 
    • Increases efficiency of water use.
    • Drought tolerance. 
    • Improved disease resistance.
    • Assists in weed suppression.
    • Improves soil structure and stability.
    • Improves root growth.
    • More blossoms and enhances nutritional value. 

    Mycorrhizae are the principal structures for the most nutrient uptake in the plant kingdom.

    Are you familiar with Mycorrhizal Fungi? Tricks of your own? What has been your experience? We want to hear all about it! Shoot us your comments below!