SPRING - PLANS FOR A GARDEN - YOU TOO CAN MAKE SEED BALLS and PROVIDE BUTTERFLY and BEE FRIENDLY FLOWERS

MY GARDEN is starting to spout,

 including some plants that made it through the winter

that were only doing so so last year, including

YELLOW CALENDULA, PALE PINK PERFUMED SNAPDRAGONS, RED GERANIUM,

a single SUNFLOWER, and, the secret of whatever seeds I put into a SEED BALLS.

Since I posted on the heat wave, we finally got hit by a few rain showers locally. We will still attempt to conserve water. 

I attended a SEED BALL MAKING WORKSHOPS for ADULTS at a local LIBRARY here in Southern California a couple weeks ago.  The idea is to make these seed studded clay balls, then drop these them here, there, and everywhere there is a need for plants that butterflies and bees love .  (Try not to waste them by planting them where gardeners wack down anything they don't recognize as a weed!  But consider old graveyards, along certain road sides or crossings, between buildings... places were there is some land where they can grow as nature allows.)

You need to buy water based modeling clay such as the Crayola Air Dry Clay brand, which is the dough kids use to make little sculptures and comes in quart sized plastic buckets.  It turns out that this clay, water based, can harden but also resoften in the rain, or when you water it and the ball provides a good seed sprouting environment. 

You will also need some peat moss and some seeds.  We used Calfornia poppy seeds as well as a package of bird and butterfly mix.

Take about a quarter cup of this clay, roll it around into a ball, then flatten it like a pancake.  Sprinkle a generous amount of peat moss on it, and then a few seeds.  Roll this again into a ball, and roll the ball in more peat moss.  Viola!  You have a seed ball.

One thing California and Hungary have in common is POPPIES.  Our native poppies, a brilliant gold color, are our state flower, and one of the reasons that California is called The Golden State.   (The other reason is that by summer much of the once-green landscape is covered with golden dried out vegetation.)  We had some rain, finally, and the desert, including various succulents and cactus,  should be blooming brilliantly very soon. 

I made eight balls in fifteen minutes.  You do not need to dig deep to plant these balls.  Just a little scoop out or simply place them on furrowed ground.  Four of them I planted along an old abandoned rail road track that has a path past it.  So far, I have not seen anything sprouting when I walk past this area, but you never know.  Because of the rains there are the native California mustard plant (short, unlike the Spanish mustard the Spanish explorers are responsible for, as they claimed the country for Spain by throwing their own mustard seeds), as well as native wild geranium (rarely do these survive long enough to bloom out due to all those wackers!), mint, and a number of small yellow flowered and purple flowered ground covers that seem to hibernate for years just waiting for enough rain to sprout.

The four balls I left in a bag to be planted later all sprouted in the bag and have been transferred into a large pot.  I cannot wait for one or all of them to grow into beautiful plants that I can try to identify!

I found this link that will explain more about seed balls PERMA CULTURE - ANCIENT METHOD OF NO TILL AGRICULTURE



MY BUTTERFLY GARDEN IS NOT GROWING!

Over the last couple weeks I've had to accept it.  My butterfly garden that I blogged about a few weeks ago is simply not growing!  I ordered the seeds from a MONARCH BUTTERFLY CONSERVANCY PROJECT, set the seeds out in new soil and in my window and watered them carefully but just a couple of them took.  I carefully planted those seeds out of doors a couple weeks later, and I even put the ones that hadn't sprouted in soil outdoors as well.  I thought if the watering or light or heat was wrong in the house they would have a second chance, but no.

I GUESS I GOT SOME DUD SEEDS!

What now?

One day when I was walking down the street I came across some marigolds that had gone to seed, pulled some of the dry buds, and planted some of those.  THEY SPROUTED RIGHT UP!

So right now I have six giant marigolds that are growing.

All the tiny seeds that immediately sprouted indoors died once transplanted!

What happened to my "GREEN THUMB?"

or did I do everything right in the wrong weather?

THE MONARCHS ARE DYING OUT - PLANTING A BUTTERFLY GARDEN

Be it global warming or more natural "earth changes" extreme weather seems to be a reality, and the ongoing hardship of winter that won't end in much of the United States is defied by the too early spring of Southern California. 

Over the President's Day holiday I managed to labor to clean out the old garden and begin a new one.  Trees are blooming here that shouldn't be for at least another month, and humidity hangs in the air, but we're in a severe drought.

Maybe I can inspire you to consider planting a BUTTERFLY GARDEN too?

You see, it takes THREE GENERATIONS of monarch to make it to Mexico which seems to be the country they like to hang out in.  Last year about 40 acres of Mexico had monarchs hanging in the trees but this year that same area had only about 2 acres worth.  That means a generation or two has been decimated.

IN ORDER TO ATTRACT BUTTERFLIES TO YOUR GARDEN you need the following:

You need plants they can munch when they are caterpillars...  THE MILKWEED PLANT IS possible their favorite but check with your local arboretum library or expert native nursery about LOCAL plants.  Very nearby they need NECTAR BEARING plants for NOURISHMENT when they are on wing.  The savvy butterflies are also looking for a place they can safely be in their in-between chrysalis stage and that means NO WIND and WARM ENOUGH. 

Some links to help you!

LIVE MONARCH ORG - NONPROFIT - INFORMATION - FREE SEEDS

UPDATE 2014:

This year marks another sharp decline in Monarch overwintering numbers and may represent the shrinking of their migratory route. The 97% decline from their high over the past 20 years has researchers very concerned.   YOU CAN DONATE TO THEM TOO.  This is where I got my packet of seeds, which I shared with two other people.

 

ARBORETUM ORG - LOS ANGELES COUNTY  link...  I called the arboretum in Arcadia and the librarian was terrific!  There are probably libraries like this in other parts of the country.

 

FLOWERS that attract "pollinators" include easy to grow MARIGOLDS,  NASTURTIUM, and HUNTINGTON GARDENS BLOG - SWEET ALYSSUM  Sweet Alyssum.

 

Butterflies like flowers that are about the same color as they are.  If you plant RED you may also get hummingbirds so think about that when you plant PETUNIAS.  The Sweet Alyssum smells like perfume but I'm also planting it because the Southern California butterflies tend to be light or pastel shades.

 

For those of you who are disgusted with winter, SPRING WILL COME - IT WILL!