Pledging To Help The Monarch Butterflies

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     A fellow blogger friend over at the 104 Homestead recently posted about her family taking the pledge to help Monarch Butterflies. I knew immediately, it was something Zoey and I would be interested in doing as well. As it was, Zoey spent most of winter on my Pinterest, pinning ideas for a Fairy/Butterfly Garden. Zoey is super excited to be getting the Monarch Butterfly Starter Kit provided by The National Wildlife Federation. 

     So how do you help Monarch Butterflies? By growing a butterfly habitat! We are going to use the area in our yard that is my wild flower garden. (Okay, so I had TRIED to get a wild flower garden going.  Every year I would sow seeds, and every year, the grass would choke out the plants.) And another spot over on the side of our property that I know will remain undisturbed. Butterflies love milkweed and it is their main source of food in the larva stage. We will also be planting some of the flowers from this list I found. Some of the plants will serve dual purposes as they are medicinal and butterflies and bees love them as well. Win, Win for all! 

We can't wait to get started on our Butterfly Garden! 

You too can take the pledge and build your own Monarch Butterfly Habitat at http://www.nwf.org/Butterfly-Heroes/Pledge.aspx. 

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Potato Bucket FAIL

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     Yes, I said, "FAIL." But I am not sure of the reason why. One day my potato plant is growing like a weed. The next it is dying off rapidly. 

From this... To this... 

In just a matter of days.

     So what happened? Like I said, I am not sure. However, I have some suspicions.. The day after I took the first picture, we had some very lovely overcast 70 degree weather. Of course I put my bucket outside so make sure it got some sun, and not just the light from the garage. It was only out for a few hours, but I might have shocked it. THEN, after I brought it inside, I used some left of fertilized water that I was using for my other plants. Maybe the combo of the outside time, and the shock of fertilized water? 
    After it started dying, we continued to keep it indoors in it's usual home and water it. We were hoping it would get over it's shock and continue to grow. After a month, there was still nothing... Time to dump the bucket and look to see what happened. 

     Nothing but some potato shells, unidentified seedlings, and a new wormie friend. FAIL! I don't think it is a 'Bucket In The Garage' fail, but a simple Human Error Fail. Another Ooops! We refuse to be discouraged. We still have a box of red potatoes trying to grow under the kitchen counter. We started over on our Potato Bucket Experiment. 
    This time, it will be left outside as much as possible. We are scheduled for some beautiful 70 degree weather by this weekend and the nice weather should stay until the end of this month. Then another cold spell is expected. We can't wait to start our outdoor garden. I guess prepping the garden area and starting some seeds indoors will have to curb our Spring Fever for now! I have also been looking into buying a Survival Seed Vault like this one, instead of or in addition to this smaller one I have been eyeing! I really like them both. 

Will you be growing a garden this year? 

We love your comments!

Disclosure: I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online.