Black swallowtail larvae in my dill

Black swallowtail cats in my dill.

Why do the native black swallowtail butterflies lay their eggs on my exotic dill and parsley?

This butterfly species (Papilio polyxenes) always lays its eggs on members of the carrot family (Apiaceae) and there are any number of natives that they could use to feed their cats, such as water hemlock, cowbane, or blacksnakeroot. But maybe my dill just tastes better than those mostly poisonous relatives. Perhaps our native plants are smarter than dill and produce chemicals that moderate herbivore activity. After all, dill has been bred to taste good to the human palate.

Swamp milkweed (Asclepias perennis)

And speaking of caterpillar food...

I recently bought these 2 swamp milkweed plants (Asclepias perennis) at a native plant sale at Morningside Nature Park over in Gainesville.

The monarch butterflies are in danger and need more milkweed planted in our yards so their caterpillars will have something to eat. Their populations have plummeted for various reasons including commercial agricultural operations planting Round-Up-Ready crops so they can spray Round-up to kill weeds, not only their fields, but also the weedy margins where milkweed used to grow. So now it's up to us.

I have planted some over the years, but most have not lived for more than a couple of years. I do have some butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa), which has hung on for 4 years or so, but it is not thriving. I hope these will be happy in my rain garden and maybe some monarchs will find them.

Dinner of fried rogue onions, a boca burger, and a tabbouleh on a
bed of oakleaf lettuce.

More rogue onions

The other night I fixed a mess of fried onions to accompany our boca burgers. I fried 3 whole rogue onions and one store-bought onion in olive oil until caramelized--very sweet! My husband had made some tabbouleh the night before and had used a rogue onion in that as well. I served the tabbouleh on a bed of oakleaf lettuce fresh from the garden.

We have the beginnings of some zebra zucchinis on two separate plants, so we'll have fun with those. I'll keep you informed, so keep reading!

Ooh, zebra zucchinis! Notice the marigolds growing on my squash mound? They are left over from my cover crop last summer. We'll see what happens with the nematode damage with all those marigolds.

A nice family at the gardenfest.

The gardenfest!

I had a great time at the gardenfest last weekend in St. Augustine. I talked to lots of wonderful people.  Thanks to everyone who stopped to talk.

I sold bunches of native garlic for $1 and probably sold 50 bunches. People who bought one of my books received the garlic as an extra bonus.

Sunrise at Spring Park on my way over to St. Augustine on Saturday morning.

The blood moon and Spica, the star in the lower right corner.

The Blood Moon!

I did get up at 3am on April 15th to witness the total eclipse of the moon. I was worried about the clouds, but they were thin and raced across the sky, so there were moments of a mostly clear sky. The star in the lower right-hand corner of the photo is Spica and it became visible only when the moon went dark. Mars was also obvious farther off the the right, but I did not include it in the photo.

I know I could have waited for the next day to see more professional shots of the moon than I could get with my point 'n shoot camera at full telephoto and no tripod.  But then I would have missed out on the barred owls hooting back and forth, the shooting star, the frog chorus from the front pond, the crickets songs, and the other natural night sounds.

A roadside ditch after a rain.

We were in the path of a big front that was predicted to deliver up to 5 inches of rain along with very high winds and a chance of a tornado. The high winds didn't come and we received only .67" of rain, but this was enough to coat the landscape with rainbow producing drops of water once this morning's sun came out.

Happy Spring, Easter, and Passover!

Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt

Read More

How 2's: lilies

Hey kids. How about those lilies. Yep I am a gardener, and you can tell. You all know that mostly I do the veggies, but who can resist the look... and the smell of lilies! Specifically Oriental lilies! Although their show is short, to really do put out ( flowers I mean, gosh get your mind out of the gutter!). I have decided to add some more to my collection. So come on, lets see what I got today.

When it is too wet or cold to do anything outside, I feed my addiction with going to a independent garden center. They have all sorts of unique things there. Look at the treasure trove I got there!


Among the things I bought are lilies. Aren't they pretty!

So the pictures on the bottom are what I bought and the ones on top are how I did it.

You can plant lilies in the fall or in the spring. I think you normally have a better show when you plant them in the fall, but...oops, what can I say.

• Once I got them home I soaked my Lily bulbs in a bucket of water. Don't bother taking them out of the plastic bag (as I did), just stick the whole thing in there.
• After a day of soaking place your lilies should look like this. See how they are rearing to go, they already have shoots on them 

• Plant- depending on how big the lily is, they should be planted between 6-4 inches deep. I dug 6 inches and then placed 2 inches of homemade compost (bottom left), doesn't that compost look good enough to eat, not really though. A little tip is to plant deep, the stem will form roots all the way through the soil which will give you a stronger plant in the end. So plant her deep and watch'er grow!
• Put the bulbs in and cover with more compost! Viola we are done...Now we will have to wait till July-August before I can update this!

Planted: 4/9/14

Read More

greens in flats

I've found that growing greens in flats is definitely rewarding.  They're often above the reach of woodchucks (like this flat on my potting bench) and they're easy to harvest, too, as baby greens, with a cut-and-cut-again approach, for several cycles.

mixed greens in a flat

It's been an unusual year for spring greens -- they're bolting now everywhere, if they were planted early, or overwintered. It's a bit early, perhaps, for bolting, but the cold-warm-cold weather patterns have encouraged flowering, I'm thinking.

Read More

Coral honeysuckle

Coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) is probably my favorite native vine.  It wants to go up, without popping up everywhere else (or being too rampant in its growth).  When it's happy, it's totally delightful.

We have a number of really nice looking plants now (put in at various times).  Some look better in wetter years; others flourish in hotter and drier years.

This one, next to the porch, is looking great, after a year with MORE than abundant rain (and I just noticed that it's jumped up to the porch railing, too!)  That's not necessarily where I want it, but it's striking none the less. 

Lonicera sempervirens

I'm sure "our" hummingbird was visiting it this afternoon in the rain. I saw him out my study window visiting Carolina Jessamine (Gelsimium sempervirens) flowers in a medium-heavy rain about 2 pm.  I'm thinking that nectar from coral honeysuckle would be much "tastier" than the alkaloid-rich nectar of Gelsimium!

Read More

DIY - Celery Pinterest

Okay, so how many of you have a Pinterest account? Now if you do, be honest with yourself. How many times have you gone on Pinterest, spent hours looking at DIYs, getting off and doing nothing. Yet, you feel SO creative... and you have done nothing! Well I know I fall prey to this. So I actually did something with all of my pins. Have you seen the Grow Your Own Celery pin yet. You guessed it, I did it, and you know what?, it worked!

My celery grew! Celery is one of those plants that I have no interest in growing from seed (it just seems so hard). This was the perfect alternative. Celery loves warm weather, so this method also gives it a head start. Plant your celery in loose soil, as that it doesn't like to get its roots boggy.

Anyways, this pin worked for me, its time for me to get back on Pinterest and feed my addiction. Catch ya on the flip side! 

Read More

A last flirt with cold weather?

The temperatures up in the mountains are predicted to get down to 27°F, as the Tuesday night low.  Brrr.  Happily, my mountain beds only have cool-season greens, lettuce, beets, and sugar snap peas! 

I'm hoping for a cool April and May so maybe I'll actually have something to harvest.

Here in the Piedmont, my fingerling potatoes are sprouting nicely (especially evident in the grow bag) and my flats of spinach, lettuce, and mixed greens look pretty decent, too. 

The garlic, leeks, and chives are all doing well, too, undeterred by a cool March, apparently. 

I've snagged tomatoes and peppers to plant, from our spring plant sale last weekend, so I'm set (I'd better bring them inside for Tuesday evening here, too;  the temperature is forecast for 36°F, not a warm-season friendly temperature.)

Read More

Finally, the first hummingbird(s) of the season

Yesterday evening, eating dinner on the porch, my gardening companion said "there's a hummingbird"  -- woo-hoo!  I didn't see it, but heard the whirring wings.

This morning, out my study window, was perhaps the same hummingbird, visiting Carolina Jessamine flowers.

And we saw another one this evening.

There are certainly good nectar-producing plants (for hummingbirds) in flower now in our garden -- coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), red buckeye (Aesculus pavia), columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) and crossvine (Bignonia capreolata).

The early arrivals don't always cross paths with these, but this year they have!

This image is from a lovely small pocket guide to Eastern birds: Early Birds, by Minnie Miller and Cyndi Nelson, Johnstone Books

And, of course, the feeder is out and ready, too.

Read More