Activity in the Garden

Our recent warm weather is stirring up all kinds of activity in Happy Camper Butterfly Garden, our little flower bed at our RV site in Matagorda. 

A faded and tattered monarch butterfly spent hours laying eggs on the milkweed the other day. I couldn't help but wonder if our garden might be the last one she visits in her life. I'll have to check for caterpillars on our next visit.

 

The bees were busy buzzing from flower to flower. Where is your hive, little bee? Is is a natural hive or one managed by a beekeeper? I wish I knew.

The milkweed is blooming and going to seed at the same time. Seeds on fuzzy parachutes will be carried by the wind near and far.

And very soon the yarrow will burst into bloom. I can already see the color peeking through. 

All this activity makes it seem that spring has arrived in February, but only time will tell if it's going to stick around.

Forgotten Seeds

You know how sometimes you see something so often that you really don't notice it anymore? Well, that's what happened to me the other day. I was putting things away in the pantry after a shopping trip and I discovered a jar of seed packets I had forgotten I had.

They were sitting in plain sight, but I've been overlooking them for a long time. And, then I remembered another stash of seeds I have.

They sit on a shelf above the kitchen sink, but I rarely give them a second thought. I decided to pull out all of the packets to see exactly what I have. With spring just around the corner, we might actually be able to use some of these.

There are quite a few vegetable seeds: purple hull peas, okra (enough to plant a whole field), sweet 100 tomatoes, green beans, butter beans, fordhook limas, squash, and dipper gourds.

The flower seeds include: Texas bluebonnets (I wish I'd remembered I had these in the fall), wildflower mix, butterfly mix, and sunflowers. The zinnia packets are empty!?

And there are others (not pictured) that were collected from our garden: purple coneflower and fragrant blue mist flower (it's unlikely I'll need these).

Fragrant Blue Mistflower took over our garden in 2015.

Most of these seeds are several years old, so I can't be certain they are still viable. I guess there's only one way to find out...