Design

I love this whimsical garden. I enjoyed Peter Rabbit and other Beatrix Potter stories as a child (and still do) -- and the illustrations are wonderful. So the idea of having a small cottage garden, complete with a child-sized garden shed was appealing, and the reality has been even more fun. It changes seasonally; right now the zinnias are stars. The sweet bright blue chair is a kid-magnet. Shortly before I took this picture, a delightful tow-headed toddler was insistent about clambering up to sit on it. It'll be fun to do our Peter Rabbit Salad Garden program next weekend!

I've never been particularly fond of zinnias, but maybe I just didn't know them very well. The large garden zinnias, planted in the Peter Rabbit Garden by a colleague, are butterfly magnets. The zinnias reseeded happily from last year, and right now it's a wonderful butterfly pitstop. Maybe because of our drought, nectar sources are literally drying up, so only minimally watered garden flowers are a respite. But the butterflies were abundant - mostly tiger, black, and pipevine swallowtails, with an odd silver-spotted skipper, gulf fritillary, and a single monarch dropping by. Pipevine swallowtail

Seeing more butterflies now is encouraging after so many weeks of none to few. The monarchs are one of the signs that fall is coming, a welcome thought in these weeks of upper 90° weather, parched earth, drooping plants, and no rain in sight. Monarchs spend the winter in north-central Mexico and the fall and spring migration usually comes through South Carolina. The last temperate zone generation of adults triggered by the short days and cooler temperatures are the ones that make the final flight, the successive generations fueled by the cycles from adult to egg, caterpillar, and chrysalis, all on milkweed. Their visits to nectar-rich flowers are fun to watch, especially in light of the remarkable migration that occurs. Here was a monarch visiting a zinna -- a great butterfly flower because of easy perching and abundant nectar.