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As I am writing this it is late July, 2004. It has so far been a great year for gardening all around. The weather has been perfect...warm sunny days with rain at least once a week. This is great for us in Rhode Island as in past years we have been on strict water bans and as a result the plants greatly suffered. Late last year I also bought an inexpensive, though very useful, greenhouse. Because it is a "cheaper" model it was not really made with ventilation in mind so by mid-June it is pretty much unuseable for keeping plants. That is ok though as it gave all of my seedlings a great start (as seen in the pictures below). This year also started out by looking like a banner year for butterflies (as the past 2 years have seen scarce local populations). When the warm weather hit many butterflies were seen, especially the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Pterourus glaucus). Unfortunetly this didn't last. The Monarchs (Danaus plexippus) didn't make their presence known until early July (much later than in past years) and all other species are a rarity once again this year. Even the more common species like the Cabbage White (Artogeia rapae), Common Sulphur (Colias philodice), Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) and Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) have been scarce. Even with plenty of stinging nettles on my property I failed to attract the Red Admirals or Question Marks (Polygonia interrogationis). Surprisingly enough though, perhaps thanks to my apple trees, the Red-spotted Purple (Basilarchia astyanax) has been somewhat more common this year than in past years. So, even though my gardens are successful this year with many blooms there are just not any butterflies around to appreciate them...and this seems like a growing trend from the past few years. |
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