Kate Frey

So there I was, checking out all the little flags Kate Frey just put out to mark the boundaries of the new garden beds, and I looked up and saw something very exciting.  A Monarch butterfly was flittering around the Butterfly Bush, feasting on nectar from the tight clusters of purple flowers.  This was the first Monarch I’d seen this year.

Aside from the incredible beauty of the Monarch, this little critter has A STORY well worth telling since many folks don’t realize the ordeal that this creature must undergo to end up here perched on our Butterfly Bush.  Much like the geese that make seasonal stops at our lake, Monarchs make astounding annual migrations, travelling distances as great as 3,100 miles!  In fact, Monarch butterflies are one of the few insects capable of making transatlantic crossings.

In our neck of the woods (West of the Rockies) Monarchs migrate each Fall from as far north as Canada down to overwintering sites in central coastal and southern California, notably in Pacific Grove and Santa Cruz.  Since migratory Monarchs live only a few months it usually takes several generations to reach their goal each year.  It’s one of those very cool mysteries as to how the heck individual Monarchs are able to return to the exact same overwintering site as their ancestors, generations ago, even though they’ve never been there before.  Wow.

A single migratory Monarch Butterfly travels roughly 50 miles per day.  During the migration, monarchs encounter many dangers including such things as storms, predators, humans (more accurately, their cars), and simple fatigue.  But perhaps their biggest challenge is finding food and habitat to lay eggs along the way.  Sadly, the plants these guys really need, notably milkweed, are being decimated by development — Monarch habitat in the U.S. is currently being destroyed at a rate of 6,000 acres per day.  Also, the use of genetically modified crops now allows growers to spray fields with glyphosate (Roundup) instead of tilling to control weeds.  Milkweeds survive tilling but not the repeated use of glyphosate.

O.K. – enough of the gloom & doom.  The fun & good thing about the plight of the Monarch is that it’s one of the seemingly few world problems that regular folks like you and me can easily do something about.  In order to offset the loss of milkweeds and nectar sources we need to create, conserve, and protect milkweed/Monarch habitats.  One way to help the cause is to establish a Monarch Waystation – a patch of protected habitat for the butterflies to use during their treacherous migration.  You don’t need to be a wealthy landowner or a rocket scientist to establish a Monarch Waystation.  In fact, there is a great organization ready to assist with simple instructions and tips.  Just go to http://www.monarchwatch.org/waystations to get started.  It takes, like, 10 minutes.  And, aside from the optional cost of a few seeds, it’s free.

They will even send you a very cool little sign to post by your Waystation to impress your friends and neighbors.  I would also encourage folks to get involved in their children’s schools.  Establishing a Monarch Waystation is a quick, simple and inexpensive way to teach kids the importance of conservation.

And when you see the first Monarch of the season flittering among the flowers you planted it will all be worthwhile and your life will seem blessed and complete.

Alright.  There it is.  Go out and do something.  Thanks!

It’s a jungle out there.  At least that’s what it sounded like last week when I went out to the garden after work to score some delectables for supper.  The oak tree was filled with all sorts of birds, hopping from branch to branch, and of all them chirp, chirp, chirping up a storm.  The abundance and variety was simply amazing.  We’ve always been blessed with plenty of birds here on the edge of the wilds but this was really extra crazy.

The sight (and sound), I suppose, shouldn’t have been so surprising to me.  As I wrote in a previous post about birds at Michel-Schlumberger, it makes perfect sense that if you increase the amount and quality of food, water and shelter for any organism the population will readily respond.

Which leads me to the topic of this week’s post.  Kate Frey, a good friend and serious expert on plants and bugs and bees is designing a series of brand-spanking new gardens on the estate.  With harvest 2008 slowly creeping to an end it’s time to get some serious planting done before the big Fall rains hit (you didn’t think we all took a nice big vacation after Crush, did you?).

The plantings will be fairly extensive but the highlights include a honeybee garden (Kate also designed the amazing Melissa Garden in the Russian River Valley), a beneficial/pollinator garden to provide blooming flowers and habitat all season long, and a small native grassland to give folks an idea of what was growing here before all the exotics arrived.

There’s still a ton of work to do but I’ll try to post updates and photos as we go.  Once we finish rolling out this red carpet for our buddies the bugs and bees I expect a nice, deep baritone buzz to accompany our chirpy serenade.  The fun never ends…