Garden Tour Begins

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Happy Monday Good GROWer,

the summer heat finally came back with a stretch of hot temps in the 80’s and 90’s, with a side of smoke from Canadian wildfires.🔥 On the eve of this warm stretch last Thursday, I saw the first confirmed FEMALE monarch in our garden and she was very stingily laying eggs, seemingly unimpressed with most of our milkweed buffet.

She bypassed our largest purple and common milkweed plants, only laying an egg on one tiny common leaf on a barely-risen plant. It’s possible she laid eggs on/inside the buds of Asclepias purpurascens, but I was not able to see them if she did.

I found 2 eggs on A. tuberosa and 5 more eggs on tropical milkweed plants both potted and in the garden. Typically, they don’t lay eggs on tropical this early in the season, but May 29th is trending late for first eggs in our garden.

I brought in those 8 eggs so I could try out our new indoor and outdoor set ups for raising butterflies. I saw another female fluttering around the garden yesterday, so it looks like spring season is in full swing.

In case you were looking for a leopard frog update….

Garden Wildlife Report

After the hopeful news last week that we might host tadpoles in the pond, Mother nature had other (more disappointing) plans.

First off, community member Linda M. informed me the frog calls I recorded were not northern leopard frogs, but tree frogs. After researching, I was able to confirm this…thanks Linda!

I found this the next day and believed them to be tree frog eggs:

However, a few days later they disappeared. 🤔

My guess is they were eaten by our resident leopard frog or by a water bug I’ve seen swimming in there. Both are reported to eat frog eggs.

So, as with monarchs, each day is a fight for tree frog survival. 🐸

Garden Plant Report

This winter 2025, our new lilacs were prematurely cut back by deer, but our mature bushy lilacs bloomed prolifically with an intoxicating fragrance.

In order to have more plants grow to maturity without being mowed down by ravenous rabbits this spring/summer, we’ve implemented two defenses:

The first is the fence that encases our back yard gardens. So far in 2025, it’s worked to perfection. But what happens if/when they penetrate those defenses like they did last year?

Rabbit defense two is in prime shape this season…our clover lawn! We have this in our front yard to keep them from trying to enter the back, and also in the back to keep them occupied if they do get in somehow:

Now that you’ve seen our plant protection scheme, check out the video of the wild side of our back yard gardens….

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🎥 Garden Tour: The WILD Side 

On the far side of the back yard is what I refer to as our wild garden….it even has stinging nettle, which serves as a host plant for red admirals, commas, question marks, and painted ladies. Take a walk on the wild side below:

Check the resources section below for more info on some of the plants in the video…

Garden Resources

Those are some of the standout plants from our ‘wild’ back garden to consider now, or for future gardens:

White Dutch Clover ⬅️ (The Great Rabbit Distractor to help your garden grow)

Urtica Dioica (stinging nettle) ⬅️ (caterpillar host plant for red admirals and more. We have tried planting false (non-stinging) nettle but no takers in our northern garden and it also did not come back perennially in zone 5a…not sure why)

Anaphalis margaritacea (pearly everlasting) ⬅️ (host plant for American ladies and nectar plant for butterflies)

🦋 Spread the GOOD BUZZ 🐝

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Coming Up Next?

The Garden Tour Continues….

I’ll show you more photos/video of our garden, and to illustrate what’s possible for yours…🌿🌺🤔

Until Next Time,

Tony your Butterfly Guide 🦋