Michigan Butterfly Garden: Before & After Photos

[Oxalis]

I took lots of study breaks today. One was up to Lowe's so I purchased (why not?) and planted a new hollyhock (different flower color than the plant in the tort garden) and an orange coneflower. They look nice for now; hopefully they still do tomorrow too!

 

[Oxalis]

Shovel's broken. Fiancé's gonna kill me...

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Hubby was smart enough to put "world's best shovel" on the registry. This steel one seems fairly unbreakable, but we'll see!! XD Here's our front garden at the moment. I just watered. The hollyhock and orange coneflower are some of the newest additions.



Here are the sunflowers. NO IDEA how these came up; I swear I only had two, maybe three, seeds! The tallest is probably around 7 feet (2.1 meters) tall.

 

[Oxalis]

I realized I didn't include the pretty flower photos! Here is the pretty pink and yellow hollyhock (Alcea spp.) from Lowe's:



Our orange coneflower, (Echinacea spp.), which likes more water than we've been receiving in rain; also from Lowe's:



Another photo of the lovely Zinna spp., on which I just missed a butterfly photo opportunity!!! The little swallowtail was too quick for me, but he was definitely checking out the zinnias. So despite them being annuals, I will definitely get more next year, especially because the butterflies clearly do like them, but also because they stay in bloom and are colorful for quite a while! (Our yard could really use the color!)



Here is the "butterfly weed" milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), which has grown a bit. Some of it's still in bloom.



Our swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) has grown a bit taller and is already seeding!! Crazy plant, this one is. XD

 

[MichaelaW]

I realized I didn't include the pretty flower photos! Here is the pretty pink and yellow hollyhock (Alcea spp.) from Lowe's:

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Our orange coneflower, (Echinacea spp.), which likes more water than we've been receiving in rain; also from Lowe's:

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Another photo of the lovely Zinna spp., on which I just missed a butterfly photo opportunity!!! The little swallowtail was too quick for me, but he was definitely checking out the zinnias. So despite them being annuals, I will definitely get more next year, especially because the butterflies clearly do like them, but also because they stay in bloom and are colorful for quite a while! (Our yard could really use the color!)

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Here is the "butterfly weed" milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), which has grown a bit. Some of it's still in bloom.

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Our swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) has grown a bit taller and is already seeding!! Crazy plant, this one is. XD

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Try growing zinnias from seed. They get huge!

 

[Oxalis]

Try growing zinnias from seed. They get huge!

I think these were from seed!

 

[Prairie Mom]

Here are some more photos from the other day. I threw some zinnia seeds down and they really went to town!

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We found some more milkweed when it bloomed too. We put down more milkweed seeds than anything else, so I'm not surprised. I didn't see any dill come up so that was a bit of a bummer, but I'll try again next year. Hubby tore out most of the grassy looking weeds in these photos and we actually found more baby milkweed plants. Yay!

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So cool and SO IMPORTANT that you planted Milkweed. I'm so impressed

 

[Prairie Mom]

Hubby was smart enough to put "world's best shovel" on the registry. This steel one seems fairly unbreakable, but we'll see!! XD Here's our front garden at the moment. I just watered. The hollyhock and orange coneflower are some of the newest additions.

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Here are the sunflowers. NO IDEA how these came up; I swear I only had two, maybe three, seeds! The tallest is probably around 7 feet (2.1 meters) tall.

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Looks really great! I also love that the tortoise statue is "drinking" from the rain spout

 

[Oxalis]

So cool and SO IMPORTANT that you planted Milkweed. I'm so impressed

Thanks, we love to support the butterflies!

Looks really great! I also love that the tortoise statue is "drinking" from the rain spout

He keeps the wind from blowing our downspout away. He has a very important job.

 

[Prairie Mom]

Thanks, we love to support the butterflies!

He keeps the wind from blowing our downspout away. He has a very important job.

Cute and functional!!!

 

[Oxalis]

The garden is really starting to improve and turn into a native garden! We've removed more of the Windsor blocks along the edges of the garden and weeded as often as we can. We're still pulling out lava rocks, slowly making our way around the house. We may have a trailer over this weekend to fill it up with more rocks, yay! But most important, we recently visited a native nursery and picked up some fun plants: prairie smoke (Geum triflorum); nodding onion (Allium cernuum); hairy bush clover (Lespedeza hirta); purple prairie clover (Dalea purpurea); wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa); and two Michigan lilies (Lilium michiganense). We fenced off the lilies to help them get established. They seem to be quite difficult to grow. I've lost my other one so I imagine either the rabbits ate it or it just died because it wasn't happy. I'll have to get more photos as new flowers grow, but here are a couple photos from Labor Day weekend that I never got a chance to post.



Even now the zinnias are still in bloom!! I'm so getting more next year!

 

[Oxalis]

We finally got married! Huzzah! I wanted to decorate the tables at the reception with gourds, and the extras ended up on our front porch.



Coincidentally, I used the zinnas in the photo for my bouquet.

 

[MichaelaW]

We finally got married! Huzzah! I wanted to decorate the tables at the reception with gourds, and the extras ended up on our front porch.

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Coincidentally, I used the zinnas in the photo for my bouquet.

Congratulations!!!

 

[saginawhxc]

Congratulations!

 

[Oxalis]

Congratulations!!!

Congratulations!

Many thanks!! I was able to get Steve the tortoise in a few photos that morning, so I'll have to share them when the photographer gets back to us.

 

[Yvonne G]

(Looking forward to the pictures)​

 

[saginawhxc]

I told Steph that when we get married I want to have the sulcata march the ring out to us. She didn't think it was a good idea, so I told her I can't marry her if she doesn't see the awesomeness of that.

 

[Yvonne G]

I told Steph that when we get married I want to have the sulcata march the ring out to us. She didn't think it was a good idea, so I told her I can't marry her if she doesn't see the awesomeness of that.

Well, it IS awesome, however, you'd probably lose the ring (and the tortoise) before it made it down the aisle.

 

[Oxalis]

Just picked up a clementine blue columbine from Lowe's that I couldn't pass up.

 

[Gus.]

I wish my garden looked like that. Great work!

 

[Oxalis]

I wish my garden looked like that. Great work!

Thanks! I'm hoping to do more this year too.