Butterfly habitat
The Southeast Wisconsin Master Gardener Volunteers maintain a butterfly habitat garden at the Milwaukee County Zoo. The garden is a complete habitat, providing caterpillar food plants, nectar plants for butterflies, a muddle, rock piles and wood piles for overwintering native butterflies. I joined the team last year after completing my MGV training.
Last week we pruned back some overgrown shrubs - Nashiki willow in particular - and thinned some others. This week we cut down the grasses and mulched the paths (in Saturday's cold drizzle.) We left the oak leaves on the beds in expectation of snow. We'll rake them out next week. We also found evidence that the rabbit we tolerated last year (as a baby) is hanging around, still eating our plants. An application of Milorganite should discourage him.
The garden is mature now, and some plants need dividing. We'll be lifting and dividing clumps in early May, potting up the extras for the SEWMG plant sale. We plan to build some butterfly garden starter kits - six different plants (three caterpillar food plants and three nectar plants) along with literature about butterflies and butterfly gardening - for the sale.
Last week we pruned back some overgrown shrubs - Nashiki willow in particular - and thinned some others. This week we cut down the grasses and mulched the paths (in Saturday's cold drizzle.) We left the oak leaves on the beds in expectation of snow. We'll rake them out next week. We also found evidence that the rabbit we tolerated last year (as a baby) is hanging around, still eating our plants. An application of Milorganite should discourage him.
The garden is mature now, and some plants need dividing. We'll be lifting and dividing clumps in early May, potting up the extras for the SEWMG plant sale. We plan to build some butterfly garden starter kits - six different plants (three caterpillar food plants and three nectar plants) along with literature about butterflies and butterfly gardening - for the sale.