Cat Herders

[GH85Carrera]

My wife is a master gardener. We have flower beds all over the property. I used to have to mow those areas, but we have slowly added flowerbeds. Less mowing, more edging.

She plants stuff that is not available at the local big box stores, and common nurseries. She likes hummingbirds, bees and butterflies. Especially Monarch butterflies.

Oklahoma is in the path for the migration of the Monarch. I can remember in the past they were thick and made a mess on cars on the highway. There would be drifts of butterfly wings on the side of the road in places.

My wife plants milkweed plants in among the other plants. That is the only thing Monarch butterfly caterpillars eat.



Yesterday this little milkweed was covered in leaves. This is in an area by the compost, and one of the less colorful flowerbeds.

She will go out in the morning and find the caterpillars, and move them to bigger plants that have leaves. We have dozens of the milkweed plants in all the flowerbeds. She is herding the cats every day to get them to plants with leaves.





This is earlier in the spring. Things have grown a lot since then.

This is parts of just two flowerbeds. We have hatched several Monarchs and Gulf Fritillary butterflies. The Fritillary eat a vine that we have growing on a fence. They completely striped it once this spring, it has new leaves and a second generation of baby cats, um cat-erpillars.

[GH85Carrera]

This is her Macan, hiding in the flowers.

[billybek]

Cool!

[drkshdw]

Cat-erpillar. Gotcha. Judging by the title I thought this thread was going to be about this kind of cat herder...

[Geary]

Very pleasing to the eye ..

[masraum]

The missus is doing a great job. Beautiful.

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Don't eat those or let the neighborhood kids eat them. They are used by some folks as a hallucinogenic drug, and are poisonous.

https://curiosity.com/topics/the-hallucinogenic-angels-trumpet-plant-is-beautiful-and-deadly-curiosity/

[KFC911]

I wuz just gonna post LOL at the title...but...

Do all the married guyz in yer 'hood scowl and tell you yer lawn is #1 when they drive by Glen ?

[GH85Carrera]

One of the guys two doors down walked over one time as I was mowing. His lawn is a putting green, but he has just some simple shrubs in front of his house. His wife hates doing any yard work, and he just does grass. He said he uses our house a benchmark for how the yard should look. I don't fertilize the yard as much as the Bermuda grass would like. I try to keep mowing to once per week. I dug the trenches and personally installed a sprinkler system 20 years ago. It is supplied by a water well I had dug. We are on city water for the house.

We do see people out for a walk stop and look and take pictures.

The back yard koi pond is surrounded by plants as well.

The entire front of the house is lined with flower beds, and one more on the other side from the flowerbed in the pictures above.

The kio pond is a major draw for the toads in the area. It is a toad orgy every year. The koi have lots of toad eggs and tadpoles to eat. Many toads make it to adulthood.

We have a lot of skinks, that when young have a neon bright blue tail.

I do have this photos of the place about a year after we first moved in. The only plants that were here when we moved in are the elephant ears. Every single other plant has been replaced, and lots of flowerbeds dug.



I still have the same 911 and the El Camino. My wife has gone through several cars. The great part is the house is paid off now!

[KFC911]

^^^^ You and crowbob...us single guyz don't stand a chance

[john70t]

Fall and spring are the times to plant perennial bulbs ~4-6" deep. Takes a few minutes.
Keep then in a cluster near something you will look at daily.

Every year they will probably get better with a little fertilizer/miracle grow early in the season.

[rusnak]

I definitely need to ask you for planting advice. I have a narrow planter under a window that I have been putting off.

[fastfredracing]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

This is her Macan, hiding in the flowers.

Man, is that pretty. I need to take a course or something. Id love to have a yard like that. .

[herr_oberst]

Really nice, Glen! Livin' the dream!

[pete3799]

Beautiful place.......tell the Mrs. she's doing a wonderful job.


Oh......and dig some more holes