Love butterflies? Plant some herbs.

Herbs draw all kinds of butterflies and are host plants (main food source) to several.

Host plant? Dill in this case.

This is a  Swallowtail caterpillar chowing down on the last of the dill in this container.

They are piggish caterpillars and will demolish your umbel family herbs, but they are truly gorgeous butterflies.

I just plant extra herbs. Some for me, some for them. It works out nicely.

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Here are a bunch of little orange skipper butterflies on mint flowers.  I count five in this picture alone, but the peppermint bed is nearly 50 feet long so you can imagine how many of these little guys flit around in there.

Whenever I water they will all fly up in an orange cloud and scatter, then flutter back down until they find a spot to feed again. They’ll take little sips of water from droplets on the peppermint leaves with their incredibly long, curly tongues which makes me wonder where they store those things when they fly.

I also get lots of shiny pollinator flies in the mint, but they are not nearly as pretty and entertaining as the butterflies.  I also suspect my blog readers would wonder why I am photographing flies. I mean for all you know  just be just barn flies…and although I have herds of those, too they don’t hang out on things as sweet smelling as mint.

We really don’t need photos of what they do hang out on. Know what I mean? Let’s just stick to our butterflies and herbs.

No, not like getting rip snorting drunk and rolling around naked in Nettles or anything…heck, I don’t drink.

I mean idiotic garden plantings that seemed like a good idea at the time-but were never going to work. I am by nature an experimenter and forever want to try new things. Based on my growing location and climate you’d think I’d know better than to plant some of the stuff I do, but I still keep trying.

Insanity or Incurable Optimist? Hmmm, it’s a very fine line.

Basket Willow in the Herb Garden

Willows are my latest mishap…but I haven’t given up. Yet.

I wanted a graceful willow planting.

Like the kind you see in the UK. Living willow arches, willow seats, willow domes. Try a Google search for ‘willow arch’ and you’ll see some of the gorgeous photos. These are things I long for in my garden.

I already had lots of willows from the nursery, and many varieties are perfect for what I wanted to do….however my climate does not cooperate with my plans.

The plan was to take some cuttings and make a series of small interlocking willow arches on one end of the patio for morning shade. The problem? The willows often die back to the ground in the winter. They grow back in very odd ways.

Here is one of my small willow arches that certainly has grown back in an odd way. Sad and in need of a haircut, isn’t it?

Seriously Bad Willow Arch

Here is the same arch after it’s haircut.

Still just as bad

Yes, It looks like Dr Seuss went on a drunken bender with a pair of hedge clippers.

Well, I’ve decided to give the willows one more year to shape up…or I am afraid I’ll have to replace them with something practical and attractive.

That actually makes me feel kind of sad.

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Concrete Elephant Ear

Decorating the garden?

I am completely addicted to concrete stuff. It is SO much fun to make. Sure, it’s a little messy, but it’s fun. Seeing what you’ve created is even better!

These giant concrete leaves are pretty easy to make and they make great bird baths, and uber-cool garden ornaments.

I’ve done a lot of these this year- all from different sized Elephant Ears (Colocasia). My plan is to make a fountain with them at some point. Like next summer.

The general idea is to take a mound of wet sand, a big leaf, some plastic, fine concrete and go to town. There are a few more steps, but not many. If you have a few hours and big hosta, rhubarb, or elephant ear leaves you can create your own concrete masterpiece. Or a bunch of them!

Here are a few small to medium leaves just after being formed. I had a little bit of leftover concrete. See it in the upper left of the photo? It is being made into a small stepping stone -with mint leaf impressions. I just used a bit of stiff cardboard for the form.

Concrete leaves being molded

For complete instructions here is a link to Garden Gate magazine’s “How-to” page.  Their Making a Birdbath video is very helpful and shows step by step how to make your own leaves.

The trick is to get a fine sandy concrete that does not have stones or aggregate in it.

For you Hypertufa-neers you can make these with Hypertufa, but the leaf detail is so much finer with concrete.

They also call for a lip on their leaves. Some of mine have one, some do not. You can form the concrete so that the leaf sits fairly level without one.

Rooster Enjoying the Bird Bath

Let me know if you try your hand at making your own leaves, I’d love to see pictures!

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raised bed out front in the medicinal herb garden. During the warm months this particular raised bed houses lots of Marshmallow and Comfrey.

Marshmallow and Comfrey in Raised Bed

Here you can see the grass and Comfrey in the bed coming back after a long winter…and see how the concrete bed has heaved and moved around from the ice and snow? Ick.

Comfrey is not taken or used internally now, but is still used externally for wounds and healing. I make salves and ointments with the leaves and root. This stuff will reseed and spread like CRAZY and the smallest bit of root will grow a whole new plant. Or twenty.

Comfrey Sprouting!

Yes, the grass has miraculously turned green in the time it took you to scroll down and you can see that last years dried Marshmallow stems or stalks are still standing.

Don’t worry, they will magically have been cut back by the next picture! Marshmallows produce their seeds in a wheel or “cheese” and they have a tendency to reseed all over the place. I use the root and sometimes the leaves for teas…

Marshmallow Stalks Magically Gone

Well, here it is all magically cleaned out and naked. Well mostly…and yes, I know I need to mow now. I also had to go eat some lunch before I finished so you get to see the picture of the bed at about 75% complete. You can see some wayward Comfrey plants that jumped out of the bed and have taken up residence just outside it…

And finally-

Marshmallow Emerging

When you whack down last year’s marshmallow stalks, you find this!

New growth.

It’s so exciting it’s almost overwhelming.  I think I may faint.

There is going to be weather.

All around the world there are climate changes occurring.

Various groups have been screaming about climate changes for years. Unfortunately, not all weather changes are in line with the cries of the Go Green, Ecological, Scientific, Impending Doom of 2010,2011,2012, and possibly the Don’t Wear Deodorant Groups.

Before you start emailing me about my lack of political correctness be aware that I myself may fall into several of those categories…

Here in the Midwest the weather has been weird this year…really, the last few years. Just plain weird.

I am sure it has been the same for many of you, so I won’t whine or complain about it and the destruction of my little ol’ herb garden.

I really just wanted to share my new ”Cover it all” gardener’s weather greeting. When I meet you on the street uttering this greeting,  please know this is my attempt to cover all of the ‘weathers’ and give a shout out to our climate change organizations. So here goes:

“My Goodness, we’ve had such hot-cold-wet-dry-solar-flare-el-nino-blizzard-green-house-gas-tornadic-mini-ice-age-la-nina-pole-shifting-weather-lately, haven’t we?”

Yes, it’s a mouthful.

Please tell me, is there ‘anyweather’ (my new word) I have forgotten? Let me know.  I think there’s room for another in the same breath.

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