Greene, that's a good idea. I'd been trying to think of something clever for a signature but I'm not clever like that.
Speaking of MOSI, the bosses have been replanting the front entrance to the museum and spread 38 cubic meters of mulch! Kristen, who runs the place, even got sunburned the other day! She posted a picture on Facebook and admitted that this was a record for her, even in Florida. Yes, wear your sunscreen and hats, folks!
Inspired by all their gardening, I decided it was time to do some cleaning of my own. I don't plant until after Feb. 15, our official last frost date. So today I was pulling things I no longer want, along with some weeds that came out with them.
Now, I've been talking the talk, and I decided it was time to walk the walk. You guys know I'm a native plant enthusiast, but I've been using non-native host plants in my yard. I've talked about the dangers of using tropical pipevines because they kill the Pipevine Swallowtails. So today I ripped it all out. Here's what it looked like about halfway through.
I had my wasp spray near me (water, Dawn soap, and a touch of Clorox) but I didn't have to use it. I found about five or six paper wasp nests, but they were empty. I did, however, find a Polydamas chrysalis that almost ended up in the trash! It's now safely in the house.
Then, I spotted another one. But this one looked odd...first it had very prominent stripes on it. Weird, but not totally awful. But it felt pretty light in my hand and when I turned it over I saw why. There was a small hole where a parasite, most likely a wasp, emerged instead of the butterfly.
And I said I was going to rip out all of my Tropical Milkweed and today I did it. Dad said it felt wrong to be pulling it up since I've always ran around protecting it from the weed whacker. Here's an article to help explain why I pulled it:
http://news.sciencemag.org/bio...
I did find three or four Monarch cats and they were all moved to the Giant Milkweed.
For now, I'm keeping the Giant Milkweed even though it isn't native because the butterflies rarely lay eggs on it so it's pretty useful as an emergency food source. Hopefully, I can eventually grow enough of the native stuff I won't need anything else. I haven't ripped out my Trilobed Pipevine yet, but that's because I was really tired and aching. Plus, it was cold. I think it actually got colder as the day went on. I don't think we made it out of the 50's. Add in some mist and sprinkles and it was a pretty ugly day here.
