Melanie, I am new to gardening this year, which means what I know you could put in the eye of a needle. I was shocked to find the Monarch in the back yard. I have a few marigold plants by the tomatoes and basil, but other than three peonies that bloomed long ago, I have no additional flowers in the backyard.

For the past few months I have been working in the yard, preparing flower beds for next spring. I have added a forsythia and three small areas of Blue Grama Grass near the birdbath and have taken another small 'left by the birds tree' out. Although my yard is quite small, I want to create a haven for birds, butterflies and bees. As I said above, the flowerbeds are presently empty. However, the basement is full of milk jugs – I plan on attempting to Winter Sow.

I hope to learn on this forum. From the few posts I've read, I have a long way to go. I am looking forward to getting to know you and the others on this forum.
Patti

@Tuckersmom - sounds like a great start and attitude means a lot in gardening. Yours is good. The Monarch may have just been cruising through, but maybe next year they will seek out your garden. Plant some Milkweed in those winter sowing jugs. :-)

David, thank you for the welcome. I have three different kinds of milkweed. The only one that I wonder about is the swamp milkweed, which apparently can give problems germinating. Truthfully, I wish there were snow on the ground now. LOL I am anxious to get started. In the meantime, I'm starting to put together a lasagna bed. The first few layers will go down tomorrow. Heavy, heavy news paper, coffee grounds and filters, straw, compost, peat moss, etc. That bed will be on the south side of the house, in full sun and will be next to the driveway. That is the area that gets bird traffic. I really am excited about this.
Patti

Patti
So glad your Monarch gave you a preview

Snow will be here soon enough...
(shhhh--I'm not ready)
You have found a wonderful place to while away the winter

@Tuckersmom - you shouldn't have a problem with the Swamp milkweed germinating. It is actually one of the easier to start. Lots of peeps, me included, have had good luck with winter jug planting. WRT starting any seeds in Spring - always check to see if seeds need to be cold stratified. If so, you can do so in the fridge - typically 30 - 90 days.

WRT "That bed will be on the south side of the house, in full sun and will be next to the driveway. ".

Great for sun loving plants that like heat. The foundation and driveway will cause this area to dry quickly. Provide adequate water for new seedlings - particularly the Swamp Milkweed which appreciate a damp location, but will do ok in a dryer spot.

Good luck.

My swamp milkweed grows in a terribly dry area , I can't seem to get the seeds to germinate for me , like two of an entire pod . I inspect the seeds , nothing I can see , even have torn a few open , looked okay , Tried stratifying no luck , tried not stratifying , no luck , I do have a couple plants though , about 6 yrs old now ,,

What does WRT stand for? Feeling dumb here.LOL

dirtdorphins said: Patti
So glad your Monarch gave you a preview

Snow will be here soon enough...
(shhhh--I'm not ready)
You have found a wonderful place to while away the winter

Thank you. I think you're right about finding a wonderful place to while the winter away. I like it here.

Sorry - WRT - With Respect To. Old habit from the early days of Internet (early adopter - I started in early 80s) when we had groups such as BCS - Bandwidth Conservation Society :-). Been on the Net since before the WWW (World Wide Web) was invented, back in the Usenet days.

@jimard8 - bringing this a bit back more on topic After Common MW, my Monarch cats liked Swamp MW best. As with many types of seeds, sometimes a seed appears to be ok, but isn't. I planted over 20 types of MW this year and > 7 did not germinate. My Climbing MW grew to 4 - 8 inches and stopped. Months ago. Go figure.

DavidLMO How old is the climbing milkweed ,? The reason is , first year not so large , by the third year they can grow 20 to 30 ft. Kudzu here

Catmint 20906 Great , great , today's article Really enjoyable reading , super in fact ,

First season - started in Feb in my basement. I have had that stuff shoot up like a rocket before. Oh well - next year. But I have problems with lots of seedlings not growing much this year. Not just this. Weather I guess.

Thanks so much for your kind words, Jim! I'm glad you enjoyed it! I came in from pollinator-watching feeling inspired one Sunday, and was so excited when Dave and Trish told me they were going to run it soon after their Monarch/Milkweed podcast! It seemed like perfect timing--just when people are beginning to wind down the season and start thinking about 'next year', plus so soon after the wonderfully educating Monarch podcast. Soon after I submitted it, we talked briefly here about doing special stories for National Pollinator Week next June, and it was hard not to spill the news about this article already in the pipeline. Hopefully, by the time of the National Pollinator Week, we'll have laid the groundwork with other articles designed to educate members about planning next year's gardens with the pollinators in mind...

Patti, welcome! so good to have you here!!

Thank you so much, Catmint 20906. I have been poking around, checking into various forums, reading stories, and hopefully making friends, since the 17th. What a nice place to be! Patti

Tuckersmom, don't feel bad about not knowing what the abbreviation means. Here we are supposed to be talking about butterflies and such and, well, I also have to stop, look up the meaning of WRT... Oh, I see. We are back in the 80s; that explains everything.

Since we have members of all ages and members from many different countries it's a good idea to always spell it out to avoid making more work for folks who are trying to follow the conversation.

The topic is Butterflies, Birds and Bees forum: September 2015 Butterflies, Moths & Larva and here we are talking about how to germinate seeds for a particular type of milkweed.

I enjoy discussing larval host plants like milkweed!
For me, tropical milkweed has flourished the best even though I'm zone 7. Go figure! it reseeded like crazy from last year, and i've found all my monarch eggs and cats on the tropical this year--nothing on the incarnata or the tuberosa. Hope I get a nice crop again next year!

So glad to have you here, Patti!

I was weeding in the garden when I found these two very large catepillars. Does anyone know what they will turn into? They are black with orange/maybe red stripes inbetween the black sections.

Jeanne, that a Wooly Bear caterpillar and will become a Tiger Moth.