The butterflies are coming!

The trellises are filling in nicely with the passionflowers on one and the Dutchmans pipe on the other.

As much as I love seeing them fill in, I really love the butterflies that are moving in too!

The passionflower has gulf fritillaries moving in. Even found a few of their cocoons! Just hoping that they slow down eating enough to not kill the vine.

The Dutchmans pipe just had some new little guys move in last week. After a little research, found out that they are pipevine swallowtails. Huge caterpillars, bigger appetites! But can hardly wait for these butterflies in our backyard.

Passionflower TRRRellis!

OK... So let me start with the "I'm sorry." Keeping this blog up to date has been a task for me. Once I got behind, it seemed daunting to get back on to make updates. Now that I am started again, I'll keep it going :-)

Recently we found ourselves in need of space in the garage and have been going on a spree of get rid of it or at least find a use. By far, my favorite project so far that has come of this: the pair of trellises by the pool. Take a look!

 

So this is a Triple-R project: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. We reduced landfill waste, reused some pieces, and recycled by repurposing.

"How?!" You may be asking. (If not, just stick with me...)

There were two old Queen Size mattresses in the garage! We stripped the material off the mattresses down to the springs. Although we did not keep the fabric, we did reuse some of the underlayment as a weedbarrier in the garden (works great!) and we found that the springs made a wonderful trellis.

First we set the galvanized poles from an old chain-link fence with a sledge hammer. We literally pounded them into the soft sand several feet in. Once they were in, Sam marked the poles of where the springs would be attached.

Then we drilled into the pipes where it was marked.

 

 The mattress springs were then wired to the post through the drilled holes.

 

After the springs were attached, Any remaining bits of fabric were cleaned off the frame with a razor blade. 

 





And VOILA! a trellis was built!



We built two in between our palms by the pool to create a natural screen of vines. On the left, we have planted two varieties of passionflower: a purple and a red. And it looks like they are enjoying the weather already!

We hope to have something else planted on the right one soon. More updates to follow soon!

Attack of the Gulf Fritillaries!

With all of the rain we've had recently, it's such a pleasure to see the growth in the gardens.

In the backyard behind the pool, we have our three "color panels" starting to take shape! The two outside panels have different colors of bougainvilleas.

The smaller shrimp colored bougainvillea on the left panel.

A big bright magenta on the right.

The center panel was planted with a small purple passionflower vine. With all of the rain, it has grown in leaps in bounds! Yesterday, I was able to catch it's first bloom; however, it was mangled from falling on the ground in the torrential downpours.

So I trained the vine up onto the wood panels and hoped that the future blooms would open up in the next day or two and show beautiful blooms. I checked again when I got home...

Sadly, not mangled by the rain, but eaten by caterpillars. Upon closer examination, little caterpillars littered the passionflower.

I checked online and found they are gulf fritillaries. Gonna leave them for now and see if they stick around. Even though they ate the passionflower vine, it looks like it's going to be ok and continue growing,. Just decided that if they've already had their fill, perhaps they will be able to grace our backyard once they become beautiful butterflies!