Looks great Melanie!

Lin, you can buy the Tampa Vervain at Home Depot and Lowe's. If you ever notice the pots at Home Depot that say "Florida Friendly Plants" on them; I think that's a place in Riverview that was the first I know to really offer them. They reseed pretty well, too. They didn't like all this wet weather we had so I lost a couple.

I did read where the beetles will eat the potatoes of the air potato, so that's something!

I've seen a recurring theme on this site that some people are embarrassed to take pictures of their gardens because it doesn't look like a catalog or a magazine. I'm guilty of it, too. But I think we Floridians, more than most people, know that our gardens are constantly a work in progress. And there are times when the work slows down because it's too darn hot! Some of us learn to live with the "weeds". Some of us appreciate what those weeds do for our pollinators. So I'm going to post a few pictures I took today of my far from perfect yard.

This is looking from the main road at the fence that runs the length of the property. I live on a cul-de-sac but we're on the corner lot along the main road. In the past, some neighbors have complained about the space between our fence and the road. Dad reminds them that's county property and tells them they are more than welcome to go down and care for it. No one has ever done it twice. Okay, so we have a big oak tree with the requisite Spanish Moss. The tall bushes are Senna ligustrina (Privet Cassia) which hosts my Sulphur butterflies. The white flowers are Spanish Needles which are the best nectar plant by far, and host the Dainty Sulphur. The reddish-orange flowers are Mexican Flame Vine which has been a great nectar plant. I saw one at USF Botanical Gardens and had to get one after I saw the butterfly action. There's some skunk vine in there, too because there's always skunk vine.

I only keep our front "nice looking" to avoid being cited by our management company but even that, my hubby said the rainforest transferred to our yard

I'm a collector not a landscaper

We were very careful not to build in a deed-restricted neighborhood and our HOA expired years ago. I was telling the butterfly thread how I walked up and down the street today to check out the neighbors. I was also looking for some Frogfruit to feed my Phaon Crescent caterpillars. I had plenty by the road and my neighbor had agreed not to mow and was like, "Let the county do it!" So naturally, three days later, the county came and mowed it down. We haven't seen the county mow the road in years! I guess the property tax revenues are back up. And as I was walking past all the boring lawns, I saw one that had a little sign where a company had applied pesticide and it was advising you not to walk on it. I thought that was sad.

I live on the corner, but down at the other end in the cul-de-sac we have a professor of Botany at USF. And her yard is crazy and full of natives. Some of the other neighbors gossip about her and her "weeds" but I love her yard. Except today when I walked by, two Zebra Longwings were on her firebush and I yelled, "Hey, get back in my yard on my firebush!" At least the butterflies (and other pollinators) have two friendly yards on the street.

I have a suspicious feeling that my "passers-by" neighbors talk about my garden. But am too busy enjoying my garden I don't really worry much about anything.

All I know is whenever we have people over they're always commenting about how many butterflies we have in our yard. So I know I'm doing something right! Oh, and Dad's woodturning friends like to look at my Black Cherry tree so they know how to properly identify one.

Thank you, Melanie. My yard looks a lot like yours, and yes, I have lots and lots of butterflies, too. We have no lawn to speak of, although we are on the corner and my wonderful neighbor mows the verges between our fence and the street, in exchange for free well water - a nice win-win if ever there was one.

Happily, we live in a non-deed-restricted community so nobody complains about other peoples' yards. When my husband comments on the "jungle" I just point out that I do keep the pathways clear in the summer, and sometimes even that is a big job. Especially in the heat.

Then I remind him that in summer the plants speed up while the gardener slows down. Once the weather starts cooling, it cycles back until in the cool weather the gardener can actually get ahead of the plants!

Or the lazy old gardener can hire a young person with lots of energy . . . which is what I did last week. We did three, two-hour sessions (well, she did 2hr. and I rested a bit here and there) and tomorrow the poor trash guys will be unloading 5 trash cans full of weeds and prunings. Things are looking fairly civilized out my window today. But that's only about 1/4 of our garden area, so there's lots more to do. I'll post some landscape pics tomorrow if I have time. School garden in the morning then a seminar on Growing Edibles at the Extension office in the afternoon.

I would love to have a butterfly garden but am worried about caterpillars. I guess you can't have butterflies without caterpillars.

Gigi, you can't have one without the other! That's what I teach people at MOSI. You can't just love the butterflies and not love the caterpillars. Luckily, kids usually think the caterpillars are neat and want to hold them. I think it's a good way to get boys interested since butterflies are usually considered a "girl" thing.

The 'up' side to the butterfly caterpillars is that they are fairly predictable as far as what they will eat, aren't they Melanie? They don't just randomly chow down on everything. If you plant the right plants in a butterfly garden, they will have nectar plants and plants they will eat that you will expect to have eaten. You do have to interplant milkweed with some other plants, though, because once the monarch catts find it, it is just sticks and quite unsightly. But if you surround it with other nectar plants you can still keep your garden looking nice.

I have tons of butterflies, at least 6 or 7 different kinds, and other than the fennel, dill and parsley in my raised bed (which I now just plant extra plants of) they don't eat anything that I care about.

I know but I do get some butterflies and dragonflies. They love my Vinca's and hibiscus. Not sure if they like my orchids and plumerias.

Dragonflies eat other insects, not plants so you don't have to worry about them. I've never seen a caterpillar eating Vinca or Hibiscus here, and there's no damage to leaves. But I do have a lot of other plants that the butterflies like. If they're just visiting the flowers, they are nectaring, not eating the plant's leaves.

Never see butterflies on any of my plumeria either. Funny, you'd think such a fragrant plant would attract them.

I don't know any caterpillar that eats orchids or plumeria. Maybe some of the moths that are generalists like Armyworms. They eat everything. Keeping squirrels from eating orchid blooms has always been my problem! Butterfly caterpillars, and to a certain extent, moth caterpillars, are pretty specific and will not deviate from their host plants. And even in certain regions they'll prefer one host plant to another.

Speaking of moths, Mellie, my wife took a picture of this moth that was on a window screen. She wanted me to identify. The closest I could come was "It's a moth". I now know (and told Miss Kathy) that it is a Eumorpha vitis, the Vine sphinx moth. Hopefully it won't munch on anything of importance, like my orchids.

Ken, you might get a seedpod on your plumeria!

That would be a first (in twenty-five years growing them). I have always hoped, but no such luck.

Well, I looked up your moth on BAMONA and it could pollinate your orchids, but the caterpillars prefer Grape (Vitis) and vine (Cissus). http://www.butterfliesandmoths...

The moth was dead this morning. I guess it starved. I don't have grape or vine.

I feel like a walking sponge. Been outside most of the day and been rained on at least 4 times.