Pupation Station

the caterpillars are all grown up and zipped away!! they ate lots and kept to their own sides until it was time to wander up to the roof. good job little guys!! it should be about a week now until the first one ecloses, temps have been pretty warm so there shouldn't be any issue with the timing. i'm sad to see my little friends go but i'm very hopeful that they'll emerge safely! everything looks good and they're safe from predation in the mesh cage. i think next year i'll only use the cage for keeping chrysalides healthy, i suppose i should let the cats be a part of the circle of life... it's important to get more monarchs out there but i know i shouldn't interfere too much. there's always a balance in interacting with wildlife! i tried not to bug (haha) these guys too much, only using a spoon to help them along if they got into a bad spot, and of course kept them outside so they'd experience the light and weather that they normally would. when they eclose, i'll let them rest for a little while and then let them free! any future caterpillars will be be in better natural circumstances when the plants are in ground. the potted milkweed was right next to the bird feeder, i didn't want them to be easy snacks! i'm very happy with a 3/4 survival rate up to this stage too. i am wishing them well in their metamorphosis!!

everything else is looking pretty okay for the summer. i moved the monardella again and it started sprouting new leaves where the crispy ones were, i'm very relieved lol. pic isn't the best because my phone camera is being cranky with focusing on close subjects rn. i got some garden tools and deadheaded the monkeyflower, the leaves look better now for sure. one of the new milkweeds came with a volunteer spotted spurge! however we have a lot of those as weeds around here so i tossed it out. we also got some hoverfly larvae on the milkweed! great news because the aphids are out of control lol these little worms are their natural predators and the adults are pollinators. they honestly freak me out a little when they fly near me but they're important little bugs! i've gotten too into taking pictures of every bug i see and sending them to inaturalist, so much fun to rack up observations. we get all sorts of beetles and weevils and weird little things. love to see the little ecosystem forming!

Good Luck Little Pupa!

the big caterpillar started to pupate a couple days ago! yayyy <3 good luck my little friend, i hope to see you in a couple weeks!! during instar 5, it ate absolutely everything we had to offer it, and i had to make an emergency run to artemisia nursery near cal state la for more plants for the other three. unfortunately, the smallest caterpillar died that day :( it looked like it failed to molt, i found it stiff and starting to shrivel at the bottom of a plant when i got home. it had seemed fine when i left, so i don't really know what happened! maybe it was just a little too dry in there. no signs of life, disease, or parasites after a day or so, so i buried it in one of the plants. more food for the other two, who both seem fat and happy! they're both instar 4 at the moment i think, i got them separated on different plants and set them up with equal amounts of food and hopefully they won't feel the need to cross territories. that first one really ate so much i was shocked!! i had to move the big plant into the enclosure for a bit to make sure the others had anything at all to eat, every little 2" plant we got from the samo giveaway was eaten to the stems. i think some will rebound and i'll plant those soon, but some are too far gone lol oh well. died doing exactly what they're meant to, feeding monarchs, so i can't be upset!

no other real updates for the other plants, i moved some things around, pruned the dead leaves off the monkeyflower, i still haven't ordered garden tools. oops. we are having weeeeird weather, thanks global warming, so maybe planting time sooner than expected? idk! we shall see

More Caterpillars!

ahhh i have been so excited about this all week!! that first one has grown to its 5th instar as of this afternoon, it's been hot this week so growth is happening pretty fast. all the eggs i found hatched! there are four total caterpillars now. the other 3 are quite a bit younger than the big one, at maximum instar 3 right now, but they're growing fast! i did get a mesh cage for them and put the nursery containers inside of it, i will plant those milkweeds in the ground when they've all pupated. for now they're feeding precious baby butterflies! i check on them a few times a day, they're doing well inside the cage and i'm glad to not worry too much about them getting snatched by birds or other predators. i put it up in a rush on my way out the door and that was a mistake, it fell over from the wind the first day and knocked the plants down, but i found every caterpillar alive and safe! the big one had evacuated up the wall on its own, two stayed nestled in their plants, the largest of the small ones got buried in dirt but i was very gentle while cleaning up because i hadn't found it yet and safely excavated it and got it back onto a plant. phew. it was a very stressful 20 minutes hunched over with my phone flashlight when i got home at 11 that night lol. the big one hung out on the wall in a couple different spots for a whole day and a half and worried me, but as i was writing this update it woke up and got back to feasting :D it should only be a few days before it's off to pupate! i thought it was when i found it almost to the top of the cage, but it just crawled up there to finish a good long molt. next time will be it!!

as for the other plants, it has been so hot, things are looking crispy. it's hard to balance my worrying with knowing they're supposed to be a little bit right now... need to start writing down when i water them so i don't overdo it. i did get a hydrometer thing but i don't think it works that well :/ i was hoping that would make it easy. the big milkweed is doing just fine, it seems very happy and growing fast. it gets a good bit of sun and hasn't scorched. the monardella is doing fine, i forgot to water it for a couple days because i put a really stinky fly trap near it on accident and i've been avoiding the area out of animal instinct it smells so bad but there are so many flies. after i gave it a good soak it seems okay, just some crispy older leaves on the sunny side. only one stem decided to grow weirdly after i rearranged it! it's working its way back to a round shape, it's grown a lot despite the roasting. on the other hand i think i'm gonna kill this monkeyflower lol it's stressing me out and it looks stressed too but i'm hoping it's just the heat and the double replant. it hasn't spit out a new flower since the real high temps started and i think i gave it too much water at the same time, the older leaves started to yellow, i've been letting it toast a bit since. there's still some new leaf growth that looks good! it definitely drains better now, i don't think it's getting too wet of feet, but i was just watering too often listening to advice on containers and worrying about the heat wave that wasn't even that bad comparatively lol. it was like 105 max for only a day or two it was fine. if it doesn't shape up this week i'll figure out what to do for it... i do know it's getting to the end of bloom season and it will go dormant soon. i think i should deadhead the spent flowers but ig i was hoping for seeds? i'm not sure i know what i'm doing with them. i haven't bought clippers yet so i have a natural roadblock. why the hell are garden tools so damn expensive?! i need loppers or a saw for the begonias too (so hot, haven't dealt with them) ugh. we definitely aren't doing any additional planting until november. no photos bc they are not lookin cute and it's getting hard to take pictures of them that won't doxx me in their current positions lol

The First Caterpillar!!!!

this weekend we hit up a milkweed giveaway from the santa monica mountains fund (check it out if you're in the greater la area and want some free milkweed plants!) and i think we brought home a little hitchhiker!!! our first baby monarch!!! this little guy looks like its in its third instar and upon discovery already preparing to molt again (you can see its little face hangin out because that also needs to shed), so it probably hatched 5-6 days ago. it will be an adult butterfly in just a couple weeks' time if everything goes right! when i discovered this guy i ran in the house to tell my mom so fast i scared the dogs lol and i found a few more eggs that look almost ready to hatch on the new plants, i'm so excited!! last year we had a different species of butterfly pupate up around the house and they all got devoured by ants and flies and didn't make it out, and we are having a very buggy year, so i think i'll need to get an enclosure and move the chrysalides we get for their safety. i mean, solid chance this one gets eaten by birds before i even go check on it again, but they do have a well stocked feeder full of seeds and mealworms nearby, so fingers crossed! this will probably turn us into people who raise butterflies inside lol

Finishing Summer Planting

went and got more dirt and such! lots of pumice and sand for the monkeyflower and more succulent mix for the rest. it's good for ca natives, drains well and often has pumice, sand, lava rock, or all three already mixed in. i might have broken up the monardella's old soil a little too much, but it was really packed in! i had to rearrange the shrub shape a little bit, hopefully it's okay. i also repotted its mystery volunteer, probably a fringed willowherb? that's what my id apps say at least. i think it is technically a weed but it's native and good for pollinators with pretty flowers so i might as well let it grow! we are having a nasty heatwave this week so fingers crossed everyone survives. they look pretty good after their first intense sun day today, i watered everything well after repotting so they have the best chance. bonus pic of the monkeyflower against a lovely sunset! heatwaves here always bring beautiful skies with them.

we got a real estate ad in the mail for the unit next door, so i need to tear out my old neighbor's invasive plants before someone thinks they come with the house! they're dying pretty rapidly without her daily waterings, and they harbor rats. i don't really care about the rats, that is their house and my dogs like chasing them, but my mom cares. i think i've finalized my plans for the space, i want a lilac verbena 'de la mina', a sulphur buckwheat, and more milkweed to plant between them. i looked for a vine for the shadier part, but couldn't find anything i liked that stays small enough - its only 4ft deep at the shallowest, up to 6ft but a tree is taking up space in that deeper spot. maybe ferns? i really want a fern, i think they're so cool. ideally a bracken fern, but i might have to trek out to a nursery in the city to get that. i didn't look too closely at the selection last time we went to theodore payne, i'll see if they have something i like later! i'll also do my favorite california poppies on the other side of our gate, it's been landscaped with african irises for as long as i can recall and i'm not sure any other large plants could squeeze between, but poppies could! i plan to get seeds and let winter rain do its thang with them. i want to wait to plant for a couple months, we are only just approaching true summer here in los angeles. summer planting is totally possible, especially for containers that get a lot of water and attention anyway, but i think it'd be better to wait until fall. if october isn't brutally hot, maybe then, but i probably have to wait until mid-november when our temps start to drop. in the mean time, i bought a big shovel, and i will be hacking at those begonias as soon as the weather's tolerable.

Starting the Garden

last week we stopped by the theodore payne foundation nursery and picked up a few things! we want to attract butterflies and hummingbirds as well as other pollinators. we got a san diego willowy monardella (monardella linoides ssp. viminea), a narrow leaf milkweed (asclepias fascicularis), and a jelly bean orange monkeyflower (mimulus aurantiacus variant)! i ordered fabric pots and not quite enough dirt and rocks and sand, the monardella is happiest in its container so i planted the other two. i worry i overwatered them after planting, it hasnt been that hot this week and they only get morning sun, but the advice is to thoroughly soak after planting... i need to get more sand for the monkeyflower. i feel bad to have to replant again especially because a spider has already taken up a home in it but i can already tell the mix is wrong its holding too much water :( however the milkweed looks happier already! its roots were starting to tangle up badly in the nursery container, that was the main one i knew needed a big pot immediately. i thought i accidentally drowned all the aphids that came home on it (semi beneficial insects, i was gonna leave them for now) but i saw some come back! yay. well i hope i dont kill these all