Читать книгу The Crafty Gardener - Becca Anderson - Страница 18

Clover

Common white or red clover will attract a whole host of butterflies to your garden, including common checkered skippers, painted ladies, buckeyes, sulphurs, gray hairstreaks, sleepy orange, eastern tailed-blue, silver-spotted skipper, and variegated fritillary.

Verbena

Sulphurs and zebra longwings will be drawn to the nectar of most species of verbena.

Queen Anne’s Lace

Another beautiful and easy-to-grow flowering herb, Queen Anne’s lace is a host food for the anise swallowtail.

Daisy

Most varieties of daisy are favorite nectaring flowers for mourning cloak and queen butterflies. Daisies are also a host food for painted lady caterpillars.

Hollyhock

Alcea, commonly known as hollyhock, is a host food for painted lady, checkered skipper, and gray hairstreak larva.

Goldenrod

Flowers in the genus Solidago, known collectively as goldenrods, are a favorite nectar source for a variety of butterflies, including sulphurs, American snouts, red admirals, gorgone checkerspots, and viceroys.

Dogwood

Flowers of the dogwood tree attract spring azure and American snout butterflies. The leaves are also a host food for spring azure larva.

Poplar

Most often planted as a fast-growing shade tree, poplars are also a host food for white admiral, tiger swallowtail, mourning cloak, viceroy, and red-spotted purple butterfly larva.

Snapdragon

Plants of the genus Antirrhinum, collectively known as snapdragons, are host food for the larva of the common buckeye.

Purple Coneflower

Echinacea purpurea, the purple coneflower, is well-known for its immune-boosting and anti-depressant properties. It is also an attractant for the common wood-nymph butterfly.

Mustard

Not only great for harvesting its seeds and greens for culinary use, the mustard plant is also a favorite nectaring and host food for falcate orangetip butterflies and larva.

Passion Vine

Passiflora, also known as the passion vine, sports large, exotic purple flowers that will spice up any garden. The foliage is also a host food for gulf fritillary and zebra longwing caterpillars.

Sunflower

In addition to providing sunflower seeds for human consumption, these summertime favorites provide nectar and host food for most species of checkerspot butterflies and larva.

Viburnum

A popular landscaping shrub due to its pleasant fragrance, viburnum will also attract Baltimore checkerspots and spring azure butterflies to your garden.

Burdock

Traditionally cultivated for the medicinal properties of its root, burdock is a favorite host food for painted lady caterpillars.

Vetch

A flowering plant of the legume family, any of the over a hundred species of vetch will attract American painted ladies, sulphurs, and zabulon skippers, as both a nectaring and larva host food source.

Blueberry

These popular fruit-bearing bushes will bring both swallowtails and spring azure butterflies to your garden.

Black Walnut

Juglans nigera, the black walnut tree, is host food for over two hundred species of butterfly and moth larvae, including swallowtails, red-spotted purples, royal walnut moths, and the elusive and exotic luna moth!

Stonecrop

The name given to a variety of low-growing succulents, stonecrop is a favorite nectaring plant for the red admiral butterfly.

Privet

Finally, to create privacy in your butterfly garden, try surrounding the space with privet. The flowers of this hedge-forming shrub are a favorite for many butterflies, including skippers, painted ladies, swallowtails, and red-spotted purples.

Public Gardening

Longing for a garden but have no place for one? Take advantage of the variety of places that have gardens: zoos, public gardens and parks, cemeteries, college campuses, garden club tours, nurseries and garden centers, or a friend’s house. In many cities these days, there are also community gardens and gardening co-ops in which you can get your hands dirty. Call your parks and recreation department. (All of the above are also great places to get ideas if you do have a garden.)

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the

journey-work of the stars,

And the pismire is equally perfect, and

a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren,

and the tree-toad is a chef-d’oeuvre for

the highest,

And the runny blackberry would

adorn the parlors of heaven

And the narrowest hinge in my hand

puts to scorn all machinery,

and the cow crunching with depress’d

head surpasses any statue,

and a mouse is miracle enough to

stagger sextillions of infidels

—Walt Whitman

With Family and Friends

All God’s pleasures are simple, the rapture of a May morning sunshine, the stream blue and green, kind words, benevolent acts, the glow of good humor.

—F. W. Robertson

Going Wild for Wildflowers

My mother is a naturalist at heart. She treasures wildflowers much more than the domesticated plants I adopted as a child. She would take me on wildflower walks and teach me the secret flora of meadow and wood. I learned to identify wild irises, jack-in-the-pulpit, Dutchman’s breeches, larkspur, lady’s slippers, and dozens of gorgeous and delicate specimens. I wondered at the difference between the small and seemingly rare wildflowers and the big and bold flowers that grew in our garden. The irises especially were in great contrast—wild irises were about four inches high and the irises I started from my aunt’s were over two feet tall.

One day I decided to surprise my mother by transplanting some of her treasured wild irises to a flower bed at home. She was pleased, but warned me that these delicate plants simply wouldn’t thrive outside their habitat. By the next spring, however, we had hearty clump of wild irises growing beside the shameless “flags” from Auntie’s house.

They tell us that plants are perishable, soulless creatures, that only man is immortal, but this, I think, is something that we know very nearly nothing about.

—John Muir

Bringing the Woods Home

There are a number of woodland flowers that will do well in any shaded and treed part of your yard with moist, well-drained, rich-in-humus soil (you can add your own peat moss if you need to). These include lily of the valley (my personal favorite), dog’s tooth violet, great trillium, red trillium, false Solomon’s seal, Virginia bluebells, and redwood sorrel. But beware—don’t go digging up plants in the woods: many, such as lady’s slipper and swamp pink, are endangered. Better to get them from a reputable (some suppliers of difficult-to-propagate plants are over-collecting from the wild) company such as Prairie Moon Nursery (send two dollars to Rt. 2, Box 163, Winona, MN 53987 for a catalog) or Underwood Shade Gardens (508-222-2164, four dollars for a catalog).

Each flower is a soul opening to nature.

—Gerard de Nerval

Spring Day Sachet

This craft is delightfully easy to make and is a sweet and thoughtful gift!

•½ yard lace

•1 dinner plate

•disappearing ink marker

•scissors

•1 cereal bowl

•tapestry needle

•2 yards ¼” wide ribbon

•2 ounces lavender or potpourri

•2 yards of inch-wide ribbon

Place the lace on a table and lay the dinner plate on top of it. Trace the edge of the plate with the disappearing ink marker. Remove the plate and cut around marker to make a circle of lace. Turn the cereal bowl upside down in the center of the lace circle and trace the edge. Remove bowl. Thread the tapestry needle with the thin ribbon and stitch around the inner circle you have just created. (The size of stitches doesn’t matter.) Tug gently on the ribbon so the lace gathers to make a pocket. When the opening is the size of a silver dollar, pour the lavender or potpourri in until full (about the size of a walnut). Tug the ribbon tight, tie in a knot, and cut the ends short. Tie the wide ribbon into a beautiful bow. Repeat until materials are gone.

Makes five sachets.

Seeds of Wonder

Kids love to help in the garden. It’s a wonderful place for a child to learn and have fun and to spend enjoyable time with you. As you are starting to prepare your garden this spring, consider setting aside a special plot or container specifically for them. Pick plants that will grow quickly (patience is short) and those that have personality (like the face in a pansy); fragrance; texture (like lamb’s ears); vibrant color; and/or attract butterflies. Good options depending on space and climate are: Chinese lantern, columbine, pinks, poppies, stock, sunflower, cornflower, bachelor’s button, cosmos, violas, snapdragons, and zinnias. Take the kids with you to the nursery, and let them select from the above choices.

You can also help youngsters sprout seeds indoors. Fold a couple of paper towels together to form a strip as wide as the towel, around eighteen inches, and five inches high. Moisten and place inside a peanut butter jar or similar-size jar, forming a border at the base. Crumple and moisten another paper towel and stuff into the center. Carefully place seeds—beans are easy to grow and handle—between the folded paper and the glass. Keep moist, but not soaked, for several days as seeds germinate. Kids can watch roots and plants sprout. When plants reach above the jar and two sets of leaves have formed, transplant to pots of soil or into the ground.

Every happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us and the art of life is to get the message.

—Malcolm Muggeridge

Heartful Greens

One easy way to entice your child into the garden is to make a patch with their name. Simply trace out his or her name in the loose soil and trace a big heart around it. Then plant a variety of fast-growing greens (leaf lettuce, radishes, watercress, arugula) in the furrows made by your tracings, water, and wait for his or her name and a big green heart to appear. Chances are your little ones will not only enjoy helping, but they will want to eat salad too!

I have always thought a kitchen garden a more pleasant sight than the finest orangery or artificial greenhouse.

—Joseph Addison

Making May Baskets

When I was young, my brother and sister and I used to make May baskets for all the houses in the neighborhood to celebrate May Day. They were incredibly easy to make, and we would get such a thrill out of hanging them on front doorknobs, then ringing the bell and running to a hiding spot where we would observe the face of the recipient. It was then I first learned the particular pleasure of anonymous giving.

To make yourself or your neighbors a May basket, gather flowers (we always picked the first wild flowers of the season, but store-bought are okay too) and make them into an attractive bouquet. Tie the stems together with a rubber band. Moisten half a paper towel with water and wrap around the ends of the stem, then place a small plastic bag around the towel and tie with another rubber band. (This is to keep flowers fresh.) Set aside.

To make a cone basket, get an 8 ½ x 11-inch piece of construction paper. Hold the paper upright in two hands, as if you were reading a letter. Turn slightly so that the left corner points down at you. This will be the bottom of the cone. Roll one side so that it is tighter at bottom and more open at the top. Stick your hand in the top to expand the top opening and at the same time tighten the point at the bottom. Staple or tape the outer flap. When you finish, it should look like an waffle-type ice-cream cone. To make the handle, simply cut a half-inch wide strip from the long side of an 8 ½ x 11-inch piece of construction paper. Staple one end to each side of the cone. (You can also use ribbon or raffia if you want to.) Place flowers inside and you are ready to make your delivery!

The garden is a love song, a duet between a human being and Mother Nature.

—Jeff Cox

Plant Passalongs

My husband and I both have green thumbs, and it can get to be somewhat of a problem. Our houseplants never die, and we are constantly having to pinch and hack them back. We feel guilty just throwing all those potential new plants into the compost, so we are always running out of room. I take plants into the office, but that’s also getting overpopulated.

Recently, however, we have come across several non-plant people eager to get started and therefore happy to take a number of cuttings off our hands. Most of these folks are young (probably because you are either a plant person or not). We’ve given them as college graduation presents, first house presents, and new relationship presents. We always include fertilizer and instructions, and we always try to give plants appropriate to the light levels in the person’s abode. Because this was a great solution to a “problem” of ours, it’s been surprising to realize how pleasurable it is to start someone off on an interest in plants. They seem so happy; I recall my own first houseplant forays, and I’m left with a satisfied glow that no other gift-giving has ever provided.