Butterfly Gardening by TGU’s Melody Wilson

Posted on August 16, 2021January 28, 2025 by admin

Images by Melody Wilson.

For More Information:

Please check out:

North American Butterfly Association https://nababutterfly.com/

Texas A&M Harris County http://counties.agrilife.org/harris/files/2011/05/bflygrdn.pdf

Butterflies and Moths of North America https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/

Author: Melody Wilson

Contact: [email protected]

The warmer months of July and August bring sightings of many different types of butterflies in the Houston area, we can see butterflies and moths almost year-round in Southeast Texas. Starting a butterfly garden can be as easy as planting a variety of colorful flowering plants to attract the feeding adult butterflies. With some planning, your butterfly garden can become a haven for all stages of the butterfly life cycle and multiple species of these beautiful pollinators.

I started on my journey in butterfly gardening when we moved into our new house last July. It took a little bit to wrap my head around planting plants solely to be a food source, but now I’m hooked. I have lost count of the number of pots of Asclepias that I have put in to feed my hungry little cats.

Our perennial pad at The Ground Up is bursting with pollinator-friendly plants right now, and when I took a short walk through the nursery and saw several different butterfly species in the perennial area without any difficulty, I knew I would be adding to my pollinator paradise.

Life Cycle

An adult butterfly will lay eggs on a host plant. Once the eggs hatch, the larva (caterpillars) will eat the host plant, often to the point of complete defoliation. Once the caterpillars are large enough, they will pupate and eventually become butterflies. The adult butterflies will feed on nectar from a variety of flowers, mate for the cycle to begin again.

Things to Consider

A butterfly habitat needs the same basic needs as we do: they require a sheltered area, water, food (for both the larva and adults), and a bright sunny area. Having a row of trees and shrubs will protect the butterflies from the weather and wind.

Your butterfly garden needs a space that gets full sun as most of the plants that attract butterflies are sun-loving.

Placing flat stones, or places for the butterflies to perch and sunbathe in your butterfly garden allows them a resting area where they can raise their body temperature when it is cooler.

The addition of shallow pools or puddles with sand and soil allows them a place to drink. There are no safe pesticides in a butterfly garden. All insecticides are toxic to butterflies and caterpillars.

Plants

It’s a good idea to become familiar with the different host plants that each species of butterfly prefers so you can attract butterflies you want to see. This is by no means the entire list of Nectar and Host Plants for our area, but a pretty good example to start with. Planting large masses of color, will attract more butterflies, and planting a variety of flowers of different heights with different bloom periods that span throughout the season is the best way to provide a steady supply of nectar for the adult butterflies.

Dig a Little Deeper!

Posted on May 11, 2018January 28, 2025 by admin

In celebration of International Compost Awareness Week, I invite our readers to dig a little deeper into the many benefits of utilizing compost.

In a nutshell all composting is, is just nature’s way of recycling. It is a natural process of breaking down organic matter and turning it back into a rich nourishing substance. With this comes a lot of nutrition and benefits for your landscaping and gardening. Microorganisms produce a rich earthy substance called humus that is the key component in producing fine compost. Though most people think that compost is a fertilizer, it is actually a soil amendment. Fertilizers add nutrients to soil; while amendments improve the soil so that plants can make use of those nutrients. A simple way to distinguish the two is to remember that compost feeds the soil and fertilizer feeds the plant.

What Can Compost Do For You?

Supply nutrients for plants by providing surfaces where nutrients can be held in reserve in the soil
Reduces the need for chemical fertilizers.
Facilitate better drainage by loosening soil structure
Use less water; Store water in the soil
Help increase air drainage
Increase the activity and numbers of soil microorganisms
Encourage earthworms
Enhances the ability of vegetables to stand up to common diseases and may improve their flavor and nutrition
Compost can benefit year-round
Helps balance the pH of your soil

My Organic Compost DS: Goodness in a Bag

We celebrated this week by releasing our new “My Organic Compost DS” bag design. This double screened goodness will be available to you in a few weeks at any of our locations. We love it and we know you will too.

Why DS?

DS is made from leaf mold, wood, vegetative debris. We ground up the raw materials and make windrow piles by folding fruits and veggies into the piles. The juices from the fruits and veggie keep the compost with an optimum moisture content during the composting process. In addtion, we also populate the piles with a microbe pack that allows for better composting. The piles then are turned and once the pile is mature and ready for processing, we screen a 1st batch with a 3/8″ screen. This product is now called Vegan Compost. The following step is to take batches of Vegan Compost and screen again. For every yard of Vegan Compost we double screen we get 60% of Finished DS product.

How can you use our Compost DS?

Our compost DS is probably one of the finest fungal compost products you will see anywhere in the US. It’s perfect for top dressing, amending, tilling, mulching, spot treating and as a general use compost.

Compost Tip:

Spread about a half-inch to an inch of compost around your trees, shrubs, and/or your lawn, and in your annuals and vegetable gardens. In established gardens, spread the compost on top of the soil, where it will eventually seep into the ground below; or you can lightly fork it over. This can help improve the first 6–10 inches.

Questions about our Compost DS or just compost in general? Head on over to www.thegroundup.com/askusanything and ask away! We are happy to answer any questions you may have. If you’d like to see samples of our Compost DS, please visit one of our locations and we will show you this goodness packaged in a 1 cubic footbag!

The Underground Secret to a Better Garden

Posted on April 11, 2018January 28, 2025 by admin

Mycorrhizal Fungi:

Let’s talk basics. What exactly is Mycorrhizal Fungi?

The term mycorrhiza refers to the role of the fungi in the plants' rhizosphere, its root system. (Illustration by Michael Rothman) — *The term mycorrhiza refers to the role of the fungi in the plants’ rhizosphere, its root system. (Illustration by Michael Rothman)*

A Mycorrhiza is a symbiotic association between a fungus and the roots of a vascular host plant. It’s major function being the ability to exchange nutrients between their surroundings and their host plant. A white fungal network called hyphae (resembles roots) is the principal structure for the uptake of many important nutrients in the plant kingdom. The hyphae are only a single cell wide and facilitate nutrient exchanges between the root tip and fungi. While you may see them spread like a web surfacing a decomposing log, they usually remain hidden underground and invisible to us.

In the Garden

As a gardener, you want to take advantage of this symbiotic relationship that fungi and plants have been developing for millions of years. The key lies in maintaining a healthy community of fungi. One trick is to use caution when dealing with fertilizers and stray away from the use of chemical fertilizers specifically those consisting of phosphorus. Since phosphorus can reach levels that actually discourage the formation of mycorrhizae, avoiding fertilizers with high percentages of the chemical will prevent beneficial microbes from weakening or breaking apart. You can also maintain your soil in prime condition by minimizing disturbances apart from occasional light tilling, weeding and mulching.

Increasing Beneficial Fungi

One of your main challenges perhaps will be ensuring that this nutrient-infused goodness survives all year round. The fungi that support garden crops are not capable of living or reproducing independently so it is up to us gardeners to ensure we are maintaining and increasing the population of beneficial fungi.

We can start by preventing a decline with simple tricks such as rotating crops within your beds and avoiding empty beds by keeping plants growing at all times. Additionally, you want to take it a step further and consider growing plant rye, oats or hairy vetch. These plants have extensive root systems and readily harbor mycorrhizae. Orchards will serve you well for overwintering fungi because they don’t require as much attention and buffer strips of a grass-and-legume blend will help retain fungi.

The Benefits

Improved plant establishment and growth.
Dramatically expand access to moisture and nutrients from the soil.
Increased nutrient and water uptake.
Increases efficiency of water use.
Drought tolerance.
Improved disease resistance.
Assists in weed suppression.
Improves soil structure and stability.
Improves root growth.
More blossoms and enhances nutritional value.

Mycorrhizae are the principal structures for the most nutrient uptake in the plant kingdom.

Are you familiar with Mycorrhizal Fungi? Tricks of your own? What has been your experience? We want to hear all about it! Shoot us your comments below!