The first step in creating a Butterfly Circle is identifying the wild plants in the grass that host butterflies. We are working on a field guide to help teachers, students, parents, and nature lovers do just that! Here’s a sneak peek:
Marking their location is next. We use hot pink flags stamped with butterflies because we can’t help ourselves!
Now that you know where the plants are, you can figure out the best size and placement of the Circle.
You don’t really “need” any of these tools, other than the field guide to help you identify the plants. Although we have to admit our Butterfly Circle signs are gorgeous. They were designed by artist and graphic designer Melanie Oliva based on the gorgeous paintings Bound by Beauty commissioned by artist Kim Heise.
Tools and beautiful signs aside, it was great fun creating the Circle together with a group of people who want the best for our wonderful community. Many thanks to Mayor Sandra Harris for supporting this project, and to Village Manager Esmond Scott; Assistant Village Manager Tanya Wilson; Recreation Director Angie Dorney; Recreation Superintendent Jackie Villagran; Assistant Public Works Director Frank Ruiz; members of Bound by Beauty’s board, and of the Rebel Botanists’ Gang for coming out on a bright sunny day to help create a biodiverse and sustainable sanctuary for butterflies and other pollinators. How beautiful and important is that?
The Butterfly Circle may not look like much now, but as the wild plants within the circle begin to grow, unmolested by mowers and weed whackers, and begin to attract more and more butterflies and other important native insects, it will become a beautiful biodiverse sanctuary full of life, promise, and opportunities for education.
And we’re just getting started: stay tuned for more Butterfly Circles!
Many of us have seen the movie ‘Don’t Look Up’ and understand its message about the perils of ignoring climate change. Even if you haven’t seen it, you have likely heard about the terrible fires in Colorado, California and other parts of the west, or the flooding or the tornadoes or the high temperatures in the Arctic. And you are likely to have experienced out-of-the-ordinary weather in your neck of the woods. It’s awful, terrible, scary…right? And there’s nothing you can do about it…right?
We’re here to tell you that there is something you can do about it, and you can save money while helping save the world: you can compost your kitchen and yard waste trash instead of sending it off to the landfill. Composting is the natural process of breaking down organic matter into a nutrient-rich soil amendment that can make your plants happy, fight climate change, reduce landfill waste and therefore greenhouse gases, and reduce the need for artificial fertilizer application on plants.
Renüable believes the whole world should aim to be more sustainable. And Bound by Beauty believes that what we do in our own backyards can make a world of difference in fighting climate change. So we teamed up to present a webinar on composting in which Xavier explains the ins and outs of about the process to help ensure its success.
Starting to compost, improving your composting operation, or joining a community composting program is a win all around for you, your garden, and the planet. Click on the link below to see Xavier's presentation. And thank you for wanting to be part of the solution!
Each morning the garden calls me to see what’s new. It’s always something .
One of the things I value most about gardens is that they are ever changing, allowing us all the chance to learn, evolve in our preferences, make mistakes and enjoy a ringside seat to nature. This courtyard has had so many evolutions over the years. At one time the fountain was flowing and it was filled with fish. And then the fish grew so that they were discovered and eaten by the local cats and raccoons. Next we grew water lettuce in each of the bowls and the frogs love that!
For the past few years, I’ve removed the water lettuce from the top two bowls to fill them with water for our bird friends. The frogs still inhabit the bottom bowl and they very efficiently eat any mosquito larvae. Water lettuce is classified as an invasive, but I appreciate it in this application because it’s contained and I love the velvety leaves. My journey as a gardener has been one of discovery through experience and education. The unique plants I collected many years ago have given way to a more urgent need to grow natives in an effort to help restore the environment and provide habitat for wildlife.
This trellis in the same courtyard has hosted maypop, corky stem passionvine, coral honeysuckle and now has been taken over by the blue pea vine. I miss all the zebra longwings and the gulf frittilaries that laid their eggs on both of the passionvines, but blue pea vine attracts birds, bees and skippers and the flowers are quite lovely.
I started planting corky stem passionvines along both perimeter fence lines for the zebras and gulfs a few years ago, hoping that planting among established vines and trees would give the caterpillars a better chance at survival, since they are more hidden than on this trellis. To some degree it has succeeded, but it’s much harder to watch the growth of the caterpillars and their emergence from their chrysalis.
One of my passions for many years has been growing orchids. In South Florida we are fortunate to enjoy such a long growing season. We are accustomed to seeing flowers bloom throughout the year. This is very rarely the case with orchids, except for a couple easy to grow varieties, here an oncidium - possibly Oncidium Ensatum, but I’m not positive. Although most orchids are epiphytic, this species can also ground in the ground.
This is the other constantly blooming orchid, a Brassavola Nodosa, commonly called Lady of the Night for the delicious scent it releases at sunset to attract the moth that pollinates it.
My orchid house provides habitat for lots of wildlife. I wish I had a photo of the hummingbirds that stake out their territory each day during the winter, but they are way too fast for my camera! Quite often the birds delight in chewing off the orchid roots because it seems to make the perfect nesting material. And this little frog is one of the many calling the orchid house home.
Dendrobium Lindleyi is one of my favorite orchids. It blooms like this once a year for about a month.
Below is an orchid commonly called a cowhorn, Cyrtopodium punctatum. It is native to Florida and some of Latin America, but endangered here now. It’s quite easy to grow once you have the pseudobulb and blooms once a year for about a month in the spring. Bees love it!
Vanilla orchids grow easily in South Florida. The flowers appear for just a few hours one day only. Unfortunately we do not have the bee here that pollinates the orchid, so growers are self-pollinating. We had so many vanilla flowers last year that I tried to self-pollinate, with very little success. There was only one vanilla bean at the end of the season! One more reason to concentrate efforts on growing native plants!
Giant swallowtails are frequent visitors to our key lime tree and wild lime trees. Unfortunately, the birds are not often fooled by the “bird poop” caterpillar defense. Hopefully the female lays enough eggs to increase the odds for this beautiful butterfly.
These soft cane dendrobiums are happily growing on a frangipani tree. They have the most delicious scent each morning. Unfortunately, they also appeal to the iguanas, who think they make a perfect breakfast!
Coonties grow easily in this section of the garden, attracting the gorgeous little atalas. I love this ancient cycad for its hardiness and ability to survive in almost any condition.
I’ve been growing zinnias for a while now, just for the monarchs. They especially love the orange flowers. As our climate continues to change more each year, all of nature needs our help and protection. Anything we can do to utilize more native plants, especially those that feed pollinators and birds or provide habit for wildlife is valuable. And the benefit for us is a journey rich in appreciation for what surrounds us.
Florida has a unique climate and there is so much to learn, believe me, it begs to be acknowledged. Not just in fauna and flora but in land and the Natives that steward it, the Tequestas, Seminole, Calusas, Miamis and Miccosukee. It also begs to be inclusive with all the people that came after and it needs to be accessible to all to appreciate. I want to acknowledge first and foremost, that this piece of land was the land of the Tequesta tribe, and the story of our garden in a way is to pay respects to them and mitigate the effects of poorly used land at all scales.
There is a funny thing to believing in sustainability that seeps through every part of your life, from food to materials you wear on your body, to what’s inside and outside of your home. I was very aware of this for years, before and after having kids, and living in small apartments. I was conscious about waste and had a growing green thumb. I started with my tiny compost bins and tiny balcony veggie garden with tomatoes, roses, peppers and herbs. And then it finally happened, we bought our home in Little Haiti with our first kid. After a couple of years living in this house I decided that decorative grass in my front yard was the most pointless perk of owning a home. The time I spent cutting grass on the weekends is wasted because no one, and nothing in this outdoor environment benefited from it. Absolutely no bees, no butterflies or birds could possibly benefit from this- and I gained nothing but a heck of a lot of grass allergies.
My front lawn started with a consultation from a man in native gardening that didn’t have much time to explain all my questions about what he was bringing to my yard. Looking back it couldn’t have been a better scenario because it caused me to do the research myself and learn on my own. My desire to learn about plants was amplified from container balcony plants to something short of a tiny forest. So here it began and the grass had to go. I had no patience in dealing with the removal or sheeting of the front yard so we agreed to smother it with about 6”-8” of height of mulch. There were no plants to remove except for a non-native clusia that similarly to grass, contributed absolutely nothing to its surroundings. So without much to consider, the entire front yard was covered (about 1600 sqft) with mulch. The kind of mulch we used was not the commercial one though, this one had not been sprayed with chemicals like most bags you’d find in Home Depot and the like. We got it from a local arborist that had enough chipped wood from his jobs and the consultant had it delivered to us. Now I learned that the arborists do it for free.
Then the planting started, we got the recommended plants from the consultant in addition to some that I had found in native nurseries like Silent Nursery and Veber’s Jungle Garden. Midsize plants were put in their respective places considering height vs. position of the sun to create more shade in some places than others. Areas of desired privacy were also considered and the denser plants were placed there. There’s so much I can say in detail about each of these plants if you ask me in person I can yap about it endlessly. I will mention however, our starring plant: powderpuff, or sunshine mimosa, a creeper that was meant to cover a good 80% of the yard replacing grass, staying low, resistant to pedestrians and most importantly, never needing to be cut. It grew marvelously in direct sun and once established it grows incessantly. The overall growth of the garden until this day has taken two years and for some people it seems like an unbearable sight and wait time. There was only mulch and tiny plants for the majority of the first year but the second year was incredibly rewarding, everything took off and bloomed. It was recommended to us to get even bigger plants at the beginning to skip the wait time barren visual, but this incremented our budget to 5x the cost. I didn’t mind the time it took to grow because I got to know every single plant in its small stage to full growth. Plus the garden was meant to go against all conventional, out of the box and cookie-cutter aspects of what a lawn is these days. Extra time to grow didn’t hurt anything.
The goal of the garden was to make it as sustainable and purposeful for the local fauna as possible. There would be no cutting, no irrigation, no fertilizing and no manicuring or leaf blowing of any kind And so, it has lived to that purpose until this day! Perhaps the only thing we maintain is adding truck loads of mulch (which we get for free) every 3 to 6 months. We joined the program of Connect to Protect and hold 5 native plants from them as well as 6 Florida-friendly trees from the 1Million Trees Project in order to increase canopy in areas like where we live. An additional aspect to the front garden was always a given to us, making it a wonderful space for our kids to explore. It did not become so necessary like it did in 2020’s pandemic. With so much time staying in, we explored every nook and cranny of this yard. There were so many new bugs, more visiting birds, new growth and more flowers in plants, interesting textures and we started to explore our options beyond having a pollinator-friendly garden.
I recently got certified in Permaculture with Earth Activist Training and I learned so much about soil, plant biodiversity, water harvesting, environmental impacts, social justice and more. All of which I wanted to apply to my already existing self-sustainable garden. Could I include food? The kids loved the small vegetable garden bed in the backyard but what if we could have more and include more different vegetables and even share? With more time outside I poked for spaces and found areas where a little key lime little could grow, some tomatoes could hangout near the firecracker bush and different kale varieties could snuggle in between the milkweed. And it worked! We got excited and decided to make an additional space for the kids to plant some herbs. Behold, the most permaculture thing anyone can do; an herb spiral. Here we have an eternal and massive sissoo spinach bush growing, rosemary, cilantro, parsley and different basil varieties. A few other things we incremented was the amount of rain barrels around the perimeter of the house. In one single day of steady heavy showers we collect about 250 gallons (more if we had more barrels!) of non-chlorinated water that our raised vegetable beds love. We also collect bags of leaves that people put out on their curbside to add to our compost or backyard and we also practice “chop-and drop” when a plant (specially palm trees) drop leaves or become hazardous and needs a chop, we simply cut and leave the cuttings or leaves on the ground or under a tree. “Produce No Waste” as Permaculture principle No.6 reminds us.
With this knowledge in my belt I have slowly begun to help our neighbors with mulch and sharing of plant cuttings from our garden. I have hosted online talks about composting with worms, finding pollinator friendly plants and offered drop-off compost options for the community near and far. Very recently I have started a forest school coop with a few moms and their kids in order to share the space and bounty. With lots of plans crushed during this pandemic I am focusing on learning more in detail about our local ecosystems and like I mentioned at the beginning with the land acknowledgement, there is so much we ought to learn and preserve. Even if it’s water! Because this land was never really ours, it is not ours to keep but we can make it right and better for our children. It has been nothing short of a heaven for our family to experience, learn and grow with our garden and I highly recommend anyone desiring to break out of the conventional lawn mold to do it!
This is the first in a series of Wildlife Garden Adventure posts. We want to highlight the many ways in which you can transform your garden into a biodiverse sanctuary for humans and wildlife and inspire you to take action.
We had recently put down roots for the first time in several decades of moving all around the world. The garden I inherited was filled with what I would come to learn were travelers palms and invasive ferns. Problem was, I had no idea what to replace them with. I was paralyzed with indecision, and completely clueless as to what plants do well in South Florida's challenging environment, or even what kind of garden I wanted.
But those months of dithering and indecision and lack of progress paid off when my very patient landscaper brought me some milkweed, unbidden but very welcome with its cheerful yellow flowers. I was delighted when caterpillars appeared seemingly out of nowhere and started devouring the leaves. But I was completely unprepared for the magic that the process of metamorphosis would bring. The breathtaking encounter with the chrysalis convinced me then and there to turn my garden over to butterflies. That turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life.
I started with more milkweed planted next to our deck, along with a non-native firebush and some pentas -- both widely available and wonderful nectar plants. These plants attracted so many Monarchs that I could hardly keep up with demand.
As time passed and my Monarchs flourished, I began creating new planting beds in locations where I could sit in comfort and watch the butterfly action.
I realized as I added bed after bed, with grass pathways in between, that the pathways were like rivers winding through my garden, and the planting beds were like little islands. This gave my garden a lovely meandering feel. I ended up replacing some of the grass paths with mulched paths as there was too much foot traffic for the grass to survive. The paths mulched with leaves gives the feeling of wandering through a forest which I love. I added seating on some of the islands so I could observe my garden from various perspectives.
Over time, as I read more and learned more, I gradually began to plant mostly native plants for butterflies and other pollinators. Douglas Tallamy's Bringing Nature Home is a great place to begin if you want to learn more about the vital connection between native plants and native insects. And his book Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in your Yard makes it clear how each and every one of us can play a role in saving nature if we own even a little bit of land.
One of my favorite plants of all is passion vine, as it feeds the caterpillars of three beautiful butterfly species, the most interesting being the Zebra.
The passion vine brought in clouds of Zebras, a mesmerizing sight. In fact, one of those clouds of Zebras is responsible in part for the creation of Bound by Beauty.
An unsightly mess to be sure, but filled with transformative magic as the denuded vine was covered in chrysalises. One morning, I saw that a young woman in a car on the swale seemed to be having some trouble. I went up to the car and saw that she was weeping. I gently tapped on the window which she rolled down. I asked if there were anything I could do to help her. After a pause, she asked, "will you give me a hug?" I said of course, and hugged her when she got out of the car. I explained that my garden was right next to her car, and invited her to come in where I could give her some water and we could talk. She could hardly walk because she was crying so hard, explaining that she'd been on her way to "do something dark" after experiencing a body-blow betrayal from her boyfriend, but she had to stop the car when she could no longer see the road. I sat her down in one of the two chairs under that caterpillar-eaten awning, and told her to look up. I was watching her face when she looked up and saw a cloud of 20-30 Zebra butterflies fluttering overhead. Her expression went from grief stricken to awestruck in the blink of an eye. It was a remarkable paradigm shift in emotions.
What else can you think of that can transform grief to awe in an instant? It was witnessing this paradigm shift, along with other remarkable paradigm shifts in visitors to my garden who witnessed the process of metamorphosis, or the sight of clouds of butterflies. I realized that the need for a paradigm shift in thinking about climate change and sea level rise could perhaps be accomplished, at least in part, by the transformative power of butterflies and the process of metamorphosis, and thus did Bound by Beauty come into being.
I began this journey with zero knowledge. Despite having lived three years in Costa Rica with all of its amazing butterflies, it had never occurred to me to plant for butterflies until that fateful day when my landscaper showed up with milkweed. I have learned a tremendous amount in the seven years since then, mostly through trial and error, and through extensive reading and talking with those with more experience. Many of my plants have come from seeds, seedlings, and cuttings from friends' gardens, creating wonderful and meaningful connections between gardens and gardeners. And, even though I have lived all over the world and have had unforgettable experiences, I can truly say that this wildlife journey is the adventure of a lifetime.
If you have a little bit of land, please join those of us at Bound by Beauty by turning it over to native plants that attract wildlife. You will create a sanctuary filled with beauty and awe and magic and wonder, and you will inspire your neighbors to follow suit. Imagine what we can do when we join hands with our neighbors and connect our gardens to save the precious natural world upon which we all depend. You will be filled with joy on a daily basis.
Connect, Educate, Transform, Replicate
We’ve got you covered: read on to learn about some of our favorite native plants that will make birds, butterflies, bees -- and you -- happy. There is a whole world of native plants to discover, but there is nothing wrong with starting out with baby steps and planting one or two to start with. You can read more about these plants by clicking on their names. And you can find many more recommended plants by reading our other posts, which are listed below.
The native Blue porterweed (Stachytarpheta jamaicensis) is a perennial classic that is drought-tolerant and thrives in full sun to partial shade. The small delicate blue/purple flowers are the perfect calling card for Gulf fritillary, Julia, Monarch, and Sulphur butterflies. This plant does well in pots or planted in the ground, and will grow to about 2 ½ to 3’ tall. The possibilities of use in a landscape are endless. They can be used as a mid-size mixed low hedge, along a walkway, grouped as ground cover shrubs, or even an accent to a garden entrance or a mailbox post.
Pineland or Little strongback/strongbark (Bourreria cassinifolia) is a wonderful small tree growing to about 7 feet tall and 4-5 feet wide, with gracefully cascading branches covered with delicate leaves that allow the sun to shine under the plant, making it a perfect choice for the center of a grouping as well as a stand-alone tree. All year round, the Little strongback's sweet little white flowers offer nectar to a variety of butterflies and bees, and orange berries that provide food for birds, making it a perfect plant for wildlife. It is endangered in the wild which makes us want to protect it in our gardens.
TESTING Known as Button sage or Wild sage (Lantana Involucrata), this shrub typically grows to about 5 feet tall and about as wide (although in the right conditions it can grow as tall as 8 feet). It gets its name from the lovely smell of the leaves, and the beautiful little white or pale pink multi-clustered flowers that look like old-fashioned buttons. The flowers attract butterflies like the Atala and the Zebra, and bees as well. If that isn’t enough to convince you to plant one in your garden, how about the fact that its beautiful purple berries attract all manner of birds, including Mockingbirds and migrating warblers. This is another winner for wildlife.
Pineland croton (Croton linearis) is a smallish shrub growing to about 5 feet high and 6 feet wide, if left unpruned. Its little white flowers look insignificant to the human eye, but you should see the video we have of Atala butterflies brawling over the nectar, which bees love as well. Its leaves are long and graceful and a lovely sage green. This plant is also the host plant to two critically imperiled pine rockland species of butterflies, which is a good enough reason to plant it in your garden as a symbol of hope for all endangered creatures. This shrub tends to fall forward while growing but can easily be propped up with a small stake or that frame for a campaign poster that you’ve been keeping around, hoping to find the perfect way to upcycle it.
Phyla nodiflora is so amazing that it has four common names: fogfruit or frogfruit or turkey tangle or creeping Charlie. It is a wonderful little versatile plant that grows to about 3 inches in the sun (taller in the shade) and spreads through runners, so it also makes a wonderful ground cover in low traffic areas. The pretty little flowers are white and purple, bloom all year round, and attract all sorts of pollinators, including native bees (native bees do not look like honeybees and are typically smaller or larger) and small butterfly species. In addition to being a wonderful nectar plant, it is a host plant for four -- yes four! -- species of butterflies, who lay their eggs on the leaves for their caterpillars to eat.
Privet Senna (Senna ligustrina), also known as privet wild sensitive plant, privet senna is a perennial shrub with stunning, showy butter yellow blooms. Sulphur butterflies, including the stunning orange barred sulphur (Phoebis philea), lay their eggs on this plant so their caterpillars can eat the leaves. Solitary native bees also love the beautiful blooms and help pollinate the plant, and we love any plant that feeds native bees. This plant loves full sun, however it is a short day plant, so a sunny spot that gets shade during part of the day is just perfect! It is a fast grower and will be reach 4-8 feet in height and approx 4 feet wide within 1-2 seasons. It graciously produces seed pods with seeds that germinate easily so it is a wonderful choice for propagation and sharing with friends and neighbors.
Teabush, aka Woolly Teabush/Woolly Pyramid Flower/ or Broomwood (Melochia Tomentosa) is a tall flowering shrub that enjoys full sun. It can grow to a height of 12-14 feet and 4-6 feet wide but can be maintained at a smaller profile with regular pruning if so desired. This shrub has lovely abundant small purple flowers that lean toward a light magenta. It's leaves are a soft greyish green. The Teabush is a bee magnet and is also frequented by a variety of butterflies who sip its nectar. Ladybugs and dragonflies also visit this garden beauty.
These are just a few of the plants that delight us. You can find them in native nurseries, or take advantage of Steve Woodmansee's deliveries to our area. You can email him at steve@pronative.com to get on his mailing list and to place an order. Francys Gomez, the Butterfly Guru, also delivers plants. You can contact her at gomezfrancys68@yahoo.com. To read about more plants we recommend, check out these posts: Create a Nursery Filled with Bugs for Baby Birds; Attract Butterflies, Birds, and Bees to your Garden with a Hedgepodge; and Saving Birds with a Butterfly Garden.
Hello South Floridians! Just imagine for a moment if, in order to survive, you had to embark at night on a very long, difficult, and dangerous journey, in which you had to travel under your own power, guided only by the moon and stars, an internal compass and map and known landmarks. Imagine further that you have to stop during the day to find food to give you energy to continue the journey ahead, without access to money or markets, but rather relying on the generosity of strangers. That is the journey migratory birds make twice a year, and you are the stranger whose generosity can fuel their journey.
When dawn breaks on the horizon, these migrating birds start scanning the world below for a welcoming bit of greenery in between the pavement and the buildings. You can lay out a green welcome mat in the form of a garden filled with native plants that provide tasty treats like insect protein snacks and juicy berries, seeds and nectar, and perhaps a water feature where these beautiful and vulnerable creatures can refresh themselves before continuing on their journey. The beauty these birds bring to your garden and the knowledge that you are making their journey easier, will give you much heartfelt joy, which is a powerfully positive feeling. Read on to learn how you can make friends in high places by putting out a green welcome mat.
But first, check out how perfectly positioned your garden is to provide sanctuary and sustenance to migrating birds:
Let's take a moment to talk about why birds migrate. Many bird species cannot survive the freezing temperatures of the northern climate, and cannot find sufficient food in a frozen landscape. The tropics offer stability in the form of consistent daylight and warmth and enough food to ensure that the birds can survive. However, competition for that food means the tropics cannot support the demands of raising a family. The North American spring and summer offer something unique: the biggest explosion of biomass in the world, whereby photosynthetic processes go from suspension into overdrive. This is fueled in part by soils rested by winter, but more so by the increase in sunlight, which is double the amount offered in winter.
What is as important as their winter and summer homes are the spring and autumn migratory routes - few more important than South Florida. During the spring, many birds leave Central/South America and the Caribbean islands and first arrive in South Florida. Arriving in a healthy ecosystem is essential for them after having flown hundreds of miles over water with no food - can you imagine? - and this is where your garden comes in. In the fall, their journey is reversed. Most songbirds migrate during the night as they are not able to catch insects while flying. This results in huge ‘fallouts’, whereby tens of thousands of birds, having flown all night, suddenly fall out of the sky at dawn and descend on green spaces in search of food. These ‘fallouts’ can be detected by weather radar - birds carry a radar signature, in the same way that water particles do in rain - allowing us to see the huge swarm ahead of time.
So, load your garden up with native plants that attract insects, and provide nectar, seeds, and berries for beautiful creatures traveling to their winter or summer homes, download a bird ID app such as Merlin, iNaturalist, or Audubon, grab a pair of binoculars, and open your eyes and ears for some spectacular sights, like this beautiful Black-and-white-Warbler, whose call sounds like this.
Or this Black-throated Blue Warbler, whose call sounds like this.
Or the Cape May Warbler whose call sounds like this.
Those are just a few examples of the many passage migrants we might be lucky enough to see if our gardens are sufficiently inviting. In addition to passage migrants, South Florida is also home to many winter migrants as climate change, habitat degradation in their usual wintering regions, in addition to urban development on their migratory routes, means that more and more birds are foregoing the trans-Caribbean flights and instead are settling in South Florida from late autumn to early spring.
Among these birds is the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, which you are almost certain to hear before you see it as it is so tiny and fast and its wings make a very distinctive sound. The semi deciduous habitat of South Florida means that there are always flowering native plants here and the one redeeming aspect of human development - a lonely and outnumbered redeeming factor it is too - is that there are a sufficient number of gardens and habitats replete with nectar-laden flowers that can sustain a number of these birds throughout the winter. Nurseries south of Miami also provide extra nectar for them. Hummingbirds love red flowers like Tropical sage (Salvia coccinea), Firebush (Hamelia patens), and Coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), and will visit feeders, but please be mindful of how to maintain your feeders. If we can transform our gardens and green spaces into sanctuaries so that they can safely winter here and be spared a dangerous and difficult trans-Caribbean flight, then that's reason enough to do so, particularly given the extreme habitat degradation they’re experiencing on their migratory routes into their wintering locations. Indeed, it is likely that these birds, who’ve been around for hundreds of thousands of years longer than humans, used to always consider this their wintering home until we came along.
Last, but certainly not least, if you are really lucky, and have a combination of shrubby thickets that provide cover, low-growing plants that provide berries, and grasses and other seed-bearing plants -- not to mention a shallow water feature and a feeder filled with white millet seed -- you might have the breathtaking experience of spotting one of these glorious creatures in your garden. Once you have spotted one, it is very tempting to want to ditch your regular life and spend the entire day in the garden hoping to get another glimpse of this beautiful new feathered friend! Painted Buntings, whose calls sound like this, are quite shy and easy to overlook, but they often travel around the garden in the company of their larger cousin, the Cardinal, which is a hard-to-miss bird with a distinctive metallic 'chip' sound that it employs while hunting for food.
These are only a few of the friends in high places we might be lucky enough to make if we fill our gardens with the right ingredients to entice them for a day or for a season. If you'd like to read up on other migrants, as well as those birds that grace us with their presence year around, and how to attract them to your garden, you can buy Kirsten Hines' book:
More tips on which native plants to use to attract and feed birds can be found in the following:
Attract Butterflies, Birds and Bees to your Garden with a Hedgepodge
Create a Nursery Filled with Bugs for Baby Birds
Saving Birds with a Butterfly Garden
The National Wildlife Federation can help you determine which plants in your area attract the greatest number of insects, which are the basis of protein for migratory birds.
While the National Audubon Society has a lot of great information on the importance of native plants in attracting birds and is a website that is well-worth the visit, we sadly can't recommend their database of native plants which is searchable by zip code as far too many suggestions are not actually native to South Florida.
Greetings South Floridians! Imagine having a flock of Zebra butterflies in your garden. Or maybe it's a flutter? A flurry? Whatever it is called it is one of the most calming and mesmerizing sights you can see in a garden in these parts. Zebra heliconian or longwing butterflies typically fly with a gentle flutter, unlike Monarchs who zoom around on strong wings, tiny Cassius blues with their chaotic and rapid flight style, or the Giant swallowtails with their stately swooping. And Zebras flutter gently in groups unlike any of the other butterflies you might encounter in your garden, which really amplifies that calm and mesmerizing feeling. Happily, if you have all the right ingredients, Zebras will hang around in your garden, allowing you to observe all aspects of their very interesting and highly unusual behavior. If you're really lucky, you might even get them to roost together in your garden at night. Read on to see how to ensure your garden is filled with the beauty of our state butterfly.
So what are the right ingredients that will not only attract Zebras, but will make them never want to leave your garden? Native nectar plants attract the Zebra butterflies, along with a whole host of other butterflies. And some attract birds as well.
While nectar plants are necessary to attract the butterfly to your garden, making sure you have enough of their host plant -- where they lay their eggs so their caterpillars can eat the leaves -- is key. In the case of the Zebra, the host plant is passion vine, which is fitting as Zebras are standouts in terms of butterfly mating behavior.
But back to Zebra reproduction: remember the mesmerizing "flock" or "flurry" of Zebras mentioned at the top? That is all about sex. Male Zebras travel in groups (gangs?) looking, or rather smelling their way around the garden, searching for female Zebras ripening in the chrysalis. The sense of smell is very important to a butterfly, as the female needs to be able to smell a host plant to be sure she is depositing her eggs where her babies will survive, so this method of mating ensures that the males with the best sense of smell are the ones to pass down their genes. The male Zebra's sense of species isn't always as keen, however; their urge to reproduce is so strong that they sometimes try to mate with Monarchs, Julias, and other butterflies.
When you stop using pesticides and plant the right plants, you will have your very own Nature Channel right outside your door, a world of magic and beauty that elicits wonder and calms and soothes the soul. As an added bonus, the passion vine is also the host plant for other Florida butterflies, including:
Greetings, South Floridians! Imagine turning your garden into a nursery for baby birds, a place of beauty that attracts creatures great and small; aerial and terrestrial; colorful, silent or singing, shy or gregarious. You can create a playground and dining hall for generations of birds who will delight you with their beauty and birdsong. You can make new friends without leaving your garden!
Unlike humans, these creatures have specific breeding seasons and for birds, it is spring and early summer in South Florida (December to June). Birds pick this time to reproduce as the combination of moderate heat and dryness means the height of food availability. Mild temperatures reduce heat-induced fatigue and stress; trees are blooming, attracting insects and producing fruits and seeds; and the dry season means their primary source of food - insects - are less likely to be grounded by rain. Plus, their breeding season aligns perfectly with the time of year when we want to be outside in the garden due to the lovely weather, so we have a wonderful opportunity to observe these beautiful and vulnerable creatures. How cool is that? Read on to see the easy steps we can take to attract, nurture, and enjoy the company of our feathered friends in our very own gardens.
The single most important thing you can do to when creating a nursery is to stop using toxic chemicals. We can't stress enough how important this is. If you use toxic chemicals in your garden to kill mosquitoes or rats, or to control weeds, you will be killing the insects that birds -- especially baby birds -- rely on for protein, and poisoning the berries and seeds the adult birds eat (and don't forget that humans need insects -- particularly pollinators -- to survive). You wouldn't think of using toxic chemicals around a human baby, and baby birds are even more vulnerable. There are many organic practices and products that you can use in place of toxic chemicals so no excuses, right?
The second most important thing you can do is to plant native plants. Why natives? Native plants attract more insects. Who needs insects? That's right: birds need insects, especially the babies who need protein to grow into healthy adults. Need help deciding which to plant? You can check out this cool tool of a Native Plant Finder, enter your zip code, and get a list of native flowers, grasses, trees and shrubs that attract the most insects in your area. It is a work in progress, but there are lots of great suggestions and it is continuously being improved. The Florida Native Plant Society's website, along with the Institute for Regional Conservation's Natives for your Neighborhood are full of helpful information on what native plants will work best in your garden. You can start small, but you'll soon become addicted, especially if a number of those plants also attract butterflies. Beautiful plants attracting butterflies and birds: what's not to love?
You can supplement the bird food supply by setting up bird feeders close to tree or shrub cover, using white millet or black sunflower seeds. Bird feeders can take many forms. They also allow you to get a better view of your feathered friends, so set them up and sit back and enjoy!
Leave a supply of bird nest building materials.
Install a water feature. You get extra points for having running water that the birds can hear.
Although this can be a touchy subject given the fact that feral cats, many of which have been neutered, abound in our community, cats and birds don't mix. Cats are the single biggest killer of birds and their babies. Please keep domestic cats indoors, particularly during baby bird season.
Refrain from trimming shrubs, trees, or hedges until the rainy season commences in June. Trimming reduces cover, stresses the birds and can damage or destroy nests and kill the babies. And try to find an arborist who is sensitive to such issues.
The northern mockingbird is part of the thrush family - all of which are proficient in mimicking the songs of dozens of other species and common sounds. They do this using phrases and mockingbirds, as a general rule, repeat these phrases three or more times. So often they will mimic a blue jay by repeating their calls a minimum of three times and then immediately succeed that with imitating another bird/sound three or more times. Mockingbirds have an astounding musical repertoire, and seldom will you find them singing the same song, so whilst every song can be varied, it is easily recognisable by the number of repetitions. If you're not sure what they sound like, you can check out their song here.
We hope this post helps you understand how you can work with nature to create a safe space full of tasty food for baby birds and their parents right in your very own garden. Knowing that you are playing a role in ensuring that the babies reach adulthood and take to the skies is a wonderful feeling!
A couple of years ago my dearest friend, Susan Howell, installed a butterfly garden in her front yard. While the idea was sound, I have to admit I also thought it was a bit peculiar. Then Susan walked me across the street to our friend Mary Benton’s house to show me what an established butterfly garden looks like and from that moment, I was enchanted.
Fast-forward about 9 months when Susan and I were exploring her garden, standing among dozens of winged butterflies, as we discussed my upcoming birthday when I casually mentioned that I would not mind having a few butterfly plants of my own. They would need to be in pots, however, because I live in a rented town house with a very small patio. Susan enthusiastically agreed.
Then on my birthday as we met for breakfast and dined on chicken n’ waffles and eggs benedict, Susan presented me with a gift of seed money, a coordinated contribution from 10 of our closest friends, to build my very own backyard butterfly garden. I was overwhelmed by the love and generosity of my friends and very excited as we hastened from the restaurant and made our way to Susan’s favorite nursery, an oasis of beautiful plant life that I had never seen before. She expertly hand selected every plant, astonishing me with her knowledge of plants and butterflies, host plants and nectar plants, caterpillars and chrysalis. I did not know if I would ever be able to grasp an understanding of it all.
We spent the day at my house, digging, planting, repotting and arranging. It was completely and utterly the most enjoyable and satisfying day I had spent in a long time.
Fast forward two years and I can tell you that my garden, still growing, has brought me unending joy. I can speak butterfly now! My small space seems much larger than it actually is, and I find some new wonder to marvel at almost every day.
Now I am rooting plants, repotting plants, introducing new plants… the garden has a life cycle all its own. I have seen hummingbirds and at least 4 species of butterflies including a brand-new visitor, the Giant Swallowtail butterfly! I cannot begin to describe how exciting that was, other than to say I Immediately purchased a wild lime tree to ensure that they will always return.
I could not have dreamed that I would create such a captivating garden in such a small space, but I did and you can and I am now and forevermore bound by its beauty.
Bound by Beauty note: We believe in the importance of planting as many native plants for wildlife as possible. However, that is often easier said than done. Few box stores and commercial nurseries offer native plants. It is nearly impossible to find native milkweed even in native nurseries in South Florida. However, we find that, as people educate themselves as they move through their butterfly journey, they gain an understanding of the importance of native plants. Since that wonderful butterfly birthday present, Lisa has gone on to plant a Wild lime (which grows into a tree but can be kept pruned), one of Florida's few native citrus plants, and Tropical sage, a native wildflower that attracts butterflies, bees, and birds.
Other native plants that attract butterflies and other wildlife that do well in containers include: Corkystem passionvine; Pineland lantana; Tickseed; Fogfruit; Gaillardia; Wild sage; Lignum vitae; Little strongback; Scorpiontail; and Pineland heliotrope. Please note that some of these grow into small trees which would require root pruning over time, and we recommend you look these plants up either on the the Florida Native Plant Society website or the Institute for Regional Conservation before buying them for your container garden to ensure they fit your site requirements. Once you do, and you've installed your own container garden, let the magic begin!
