Woolly Verbena

Verbena Purple Color on the Kansas Prairie

So what better place to begin decorating than with the right color palette.

Purple color palettes inspired by Kansas wildflowers.

Purple was by far the most amazing color on the Kansas prairie in July. All the pictures in this post were taken just last weekend. This wild flower, Western Ironweed, was everywhere . It attracted some amazing and quite large butterflies. It was well worth the  trip to the prairie just to study the butterflies. And with nature you can’t seem to study one thing without the other because it’s natural to study the wildlife and habitat together.

After a bit of research I found that all the butterflies pictured in this post are Eastern Tiger Swallowtails. Which is hard to believe because they are different colors  but also easy to believe after observing them, since they were same size and had the same behavior, such as feeding off the Western Ironweed. The black butterfly is a female. And the yellow in the first image is a male, because it has little or no blue on the bottom tips of the wings.

Isn’t this image a keeper? I loved how the caterpillar is chomping away and this photo captured that in action! This caterpillar is not an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail caterpillar. If you know what it is please do comment! If you would like to study wildflowers and butterflies together, you can use the butterfly notebook page below. Or, you can download…

the entire 2o page insect pack for free!!!

Butterfly Notebook Pages

Watch for more Colors on the Kansas Prairie in this series:

1. Yellow
2. Green
3. Purple
4. White
5. Pink

Resources:

Kansas Wildflowers by Color | Great Palins Nature Center | Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center |Nature Gate

Linked up with other wonderful summer series on iHomeschool Network Summer Hopscotch!

The post Color On the Kansas Prairie: Verbena Purple appeared first on Dymphna's Song.

Where there is food supply for their young, they will most definitely lay their eggs. And bam! Cabbage “moth” larvae. I say moth in quotation marks because the worms shown above are actually the caterpillars of the Small White Butterfly: Pieris Rapae.  It’s also called the imported cabbage worm because it was accidentally introduced to North America.  I am absolutely sure this was the main invader of my cabbages and that it’s this particular species because I have seen this little white butterfly visiting on several occasions.

This invader not only goes for cabbages but will also attack vegetables in the same family (mustard family) which would include broccoli, kale, kohlrabi, and cauliflower. I also found what I believe to be cabbage loopers  (Trichoplusia ni) pictured above, left. But I can’t be completely sure because I never actually saw the moth, most likely because the eggs were laid at night, moths being nocturnal.  I’d never seen the inch worm looking type before, but realized that I’d better take action before I loose all of my spring veggies for sure. Last year I had to throw my cabbages away and I wanted to prevent it from happening again.

 I’m happy to say, “I figured out cabbage moth control.”

Now, let me show you how my garden looks right now {I took this picture on the 19th}. I’m so happy with it! 

I only lost one cabbage. I can start harvesting several things now and use them in our meals such as my onions and kale. I’m most happy about the broccoli, kale and saving all but one of my cabbages.

Steps for Cabbage Moth Control

1. I planted the starts earlier…

…around April 9th and I also started them as small plants from the garden store instead of from seed. My seeds did fine last year, but took way too long without a green house. From now on I have decided to start small plants in early April (cool weather only). I can always cover for a major frost. Here’s how they looked after being planted.

2. I removed the worms I found immediately and checked them daily.

This is the best action to take for organic gardeners. If you can catch them before they hatch, that’s even better! Unfortunately, they’re hard to see because they are excellently camouflaged. Wash and check each plant’s leaves up close when watering daily.

3. I noticed they prefer green cabbage.

Next year I plan to plant only red cabbages. They seem more resistant than the green variety. Just an observation I have made from watching.

4. Find a good organic spray.

I hate to do this, even if it says organic, but it was necessary. And I feel like the one time spray may be enough as well to prevent further eggs being laid. I found Captain Jack’s Dead Bug Brew Concentrate from a store I trust and that I know cares about gardening. It worked very well and I am so happy to say I only lost one cabbage and the others are now thriving! This was something I did reluctantly but am very glad I did.

You’ll find me writing about gardening in a few other places online: Gardening with Children on The Laundry Moms and…

 Hip Homeschool Moms on Starting a Homeschool Garden:

or check out my FREE Garden Notebook Pages:

The post Garden Update: Cabbage Moth Control appeared first on Dymphna's Song.

 We discovered wooly aphids: funny little bugs with feathers behind them.

When we discovered these funny little bugs with feathers behind them, we wondered what they could be and why none of us had ever seen them before. It was obvious they liked the wood, perhaps as a food sources or a place to live. They had wings and funny little black eyes. So, awesome. A new insect to learn about.

Aphids are garden pests.

When we looked them up, these were very easy to identify, since they are easy to describe…white fluffy things. Kinda cute, but after researching I found out that they can be quite the pests. They are a sucking insect (an aphid) and when they suck from a plant they leave behind a sticky substance called honeydew which can cause plant damage. They feed on  leaves, buds, roots of the plants, and even the bark, which is why we found them on a piece of wood. A waxy substance which they excrete creates the feather or wooly looking part of its appearance.

From a gardeners perspective, aphids are always bad, no matter what kind. So if you find them you need to remove them as soon as you find them. I just remove them with my fingers and the water hose. But if you don’t like that idea you can use a very diluted mixture of dish soap and water and wash them off with it.

But on a positive note, some types are amazing companions to ants and on that note is a great way to study them. See if you can find the answers to these questions:

1. How do aphids and ants work together?
2. What do they eat?
3. What do they produce which helps ants?

The more I take time to learn about the world around me, however small, the more I feel like a part of it.

Let me help you discover it too!

Aphid Notebook Pages:

Aphid Notebooking Page

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