How I stumbled upon making my yard a certified wildlife habitat:
A couple weeks ago I was doing some research on how I could best maximize my yard to provide more milkweed varieties as well as nectar-producing flowers to attract more monarch butterflies and sustain the ones I already had milling about. You see, back in December I had about 8 monarch caterpillars on my single 2-foot-tall milkweed. Well, in no time at all they had stripped it bare of anything save stems. When I got home from work, I noticed that they had evacuated in search of new food sources.
The only problem was there were no other milkweed plants for miles around. In the fading light of that warm Tuesday I began a frantic search for the suicidal caterpillars. With a flashlight I scoured the yard in hopes of rescuing as many as I could find. That’s how I roll. You see, I felt guilty for having lured them in to provide only half of the food they needed to finish the deed. Continue reading “It's Official, I Have Become Ranger Rick!”