Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Butterfly Gardening with Kids



By Pam Brown, Urban Horticulture Extension Agent

Gardening with children can be a fun and educational activity. A butterfly garden is easy to do and will provide eggs to look for, along with caterpillars and butterflies to watch. It is a great way to spend quality time with your kids.

Now is a good time to plant a butterfly garden. You need to have location with lots of sun, a site that is not soggy, and that you can get water to for irrigation. The size is up to you - but involve children in the planning and selection of the location. You can talk about the needs for sun of both the plants and butterflies. If you have more than one child that will be gardening, you might want to assign them to areas of the garden.

If the children are small, they need tools that fit their size. You can find some really cute tools by shopping around. Take the children with you so that you can judge if the tools are appropriate. They will need gardening gloves to protect their hands. Some adult tools are for small areas and will be appropriate for older children.

One of the most important tasks for planting a garden of any kind is preparing the soil. If the area has not been a garden, you will want to clear it of all grass or plants and then add compost or other organic matter along with a good balanced slow release fertilizer to the area and spade it in. This is a good job for the kids - they like to dig in the soil. Teach them that growing a healthy garden starts with good soil and that plants, just like people, need water to drink and nutrients to grow. Once the material has been incorporated - rake the area smooth.

When choosing plants for your garden, you may want to consult the University of Florida/IFAS Extension publication Butterfly Gardening in Florida. Plants with flowers that are nectar or food plants will attract many kinds of butterflies. However, each species of butterfly has specific plants that they lay the eggs on so that the caterpillars have the proper food once they hatch. You will want to plant some of both in your garden. Select plants for instant effect and also purchase some seeds for the children to sow. Watching seeds sprout from the ground is a fun thing for kids. The publication listed above has lists of specific larval plants for each type of butterfly. Milkweed is both a larval plant for the Monarch and nectar source for many butterflies. Parsley, dill, fennel and carrots are larval plants for American Swallowtails. Many of our native plants are both larval and nectar sources for many butterflies. Bidens is a native that grows in many open areas and the medians of the roads that serves as a wonderful nectar source. You will want to talk with your children about the fact that the eggs that the butterfly lays will hatch into caterpillars that will eat the leaves of the plants. Some children get upset that the plants are disappearing. The caterpillar will then form a chrysalis (cocoon) that the butterfly will emerge from. Getting to observe this process is truly magical for children and adults.

Butterfly caterpillars are blind. They do not build their chrysalis on the plant they feed on - they climb down and crawl along the ground until they bump into something. They will then climb up to form the chrysalis. Planting a barrier around the edge of the garden will help keep them in the garden and give them a place to go. Liriope, daylilies or other bushy low growing plants will do. You could also put a few rough wooden planks in the garden or a bench. This will also provide some place to build a chrysalis.

Once you have your garden planted, the plants will need to be watered daily for the first few days then every few days for several weeks. Where seeds are planted the soil should be kept moist until the seedlings have two sets of leaves, then taper off. This is a good job for children. A watering can will keep the seeds from being washed out of the ground or use a hose end sprayer set on a gentle setting. You will need to add some additional fertilizer every two or three months, depending on the type you use. Follow the information on the label.

You should see butterflies visiting in a few days, and then plan to visit the garden every few days to watch for caterpillars, chrysalis and butterflies emerging.

Please watch our short video below for butterfly gardening information.
*Both pictures in this blog are by Dan Culbert, Horticulture Extension Agent in Okeechobee County, Florida


Monday, March 9, 2009

Treating Cold-Damaged Palms

By Andy Wilson, Horticulturist

Some areas of Pinellas County, particularly the northeastern section of the county, experienced a night or two of below freezing temperatures this winter. If you have palms showing cold damage, follow these suggestions from the University of Florida to increase the chances that they will recover.

First, remove the cold-damaged portions of the leaves. Leaves that are green but simply spotted from cold damage should not be removed. These leaves are needed to manufacture food for the palm through photosynthesis. Immediately after pruning, spray the palm with a fungicide containing copper at the rate recommended on the label. Add a spreader sticker to the spray solution. After 10 days, repeat the copper fungicide spray or apply another broad spectrum fungicide that is labeled for palms, such as some of the products containing mancozeb or chlorothalonil. After the 2 applications of fungicide have been made, apply a soluble micronutrient spray once a month, continuing into summer. A granular 8-2-12-4 palm fertilizer can applied in the spring and repeated about ever 3 months.

With palms with such severe damage that the spear leaf (the new unopened leaf) pulls out when gently tugged there is still a chance of recovery. Remove as much of the dead and decaying material and possible and then apply the copper fungicide, spraying down into the cavity where the spear leaf was previously attached. Reapply the copper fungicide in 10 days and continue with after care as above.

Remember that full recovery is a slow process. The palm will not look better until it has produced some healthy new fronds.

The information in this article is taken from the fact sheet Treating Cold-Damaged Palms by Dr. Timothy Broschat:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/MG318

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Black Gold


By Pam Brown, Urban Horticulture Extension Agent

Compost has been called black gold and it is lurking in the discarded yard and vegetable kitchen wastes. These wastes can be composted into a wonderful organic soil amendment.

Composting is the biological decomposition of organic wastes. In this case the organic wastes are ordinary vegetable and yard trimmings. This process happens naturally in the forests as leaves and other organic wastes decompose. And, you can do it in a controlled manner in your back yard.

Yard wastes make up about 20% or more of the collected municipal solid waste. Composting this material keeps it out of the waste stream and extends the life of landfills while at the same time produces a useful organic soil amendment. It is part of a commitment to recycling.

There are several ways to allow this organic decomposition to take place. One simple way is to let leaves from your oak or other trees fall to the ground around the tree and decompose there. This is a type of composting. Or, you can pile those leaves into a container at least 3x3x3 along with other yard trimmings that have been chopped (run over them with your lawn mower) and vegetable wastes, coffee grounds and egg shells from your kitchen. Turn it occasionally and keep it moist. In a few months you will have great compost to add to your garden beds. You do not want to put animal wastes, bones, oils, fat or dairy products into your compost. They will decompose, but they will probably attract unwanted critters to your pile.

Adding compost to your garden and landscape helps create good soil structure. It helps our sandy soils retain water and nutrients so that they are available to the plants for a longer period. And, compost feeds the diverse critters in the soil that are necessary for healthy soil. Soil enriched with compost contains lots of beneficial insects, worms and other critters that burrow through the soil and keep it aerated as well as beneficial microbes that can actually protect plant roots from soil borne diseases.

We periodically present “Compost Happens” classes where you can learn all about composting and possibly take home a compost bin as a door prize. Check out our web site at
http://pinellascounty.org then click on “calendar” to find the dates of the next classes. You can register on-line as well.

For more information, please access these University of Florida/IFAS Extension publications or watch our short video.

Compost Tips for the Home Gardener
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/document_ep323

Construction of Home Compost Units
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/document_he026