As former professional bean walker, I ’ve always hated milkweed. It’s slippery, slimy, sticky and stinky. It turns your hands a putrid green when you try to pull it, and reproduces faster than rabbits. But, when I learned that monarch butterflies depend on milkweed, I started letting it grow in my flower garden. On purpose. {GASP!}
Why? I love butterflies more that I hate milkweed. And lately, butterflies have been getting the short end of the stick.
Butterflies in Trouble
Within my lifetime (I know that’s a long time, but still…) butterfly habitats and food sources, such as the sticky, stinky milkweed, have been disappearing at an alarming rate. This decline is putting a big dent in the number of kaleidoscopes (the fancy word for a group of butterflies) flitting around our yards, pollinating flowers and food, eating aphids, and generally adding beauty and delight to our lives. (monarchjointventure.org and saveourmonarchs.org.)
Kida likes snoozing with her butterfly sleep mask, too.
Do you remember when summer and butterflies were almost synonymous? I remember endless sunny days running around our yard, catching butterflies of every size and color. I remember their tiny feet clinging to my finger before I waved my arm and watched them take flight. That doesn’t happen anymore. It’s rare to see more than one butterfly at a time flitting about, and rarer to see the variety I used to take for granted. That makes me sad.
A Milkweed Convert
So last summer, when a volunteer milkweed plant nudged its way into my flower garden, trying to hide among the well-spaced peonies and iris, I let it grow. I became a milkweed convert. Like a miracle, the distinctive monarch caterpillars soon appeared, munching away on tender milkweed leaves. And I let additional milkweed volunteers grow.
When I learned milkweed was the monarch’s only food source,
I became a milkweed convert and advocate.
We kept an eye on the milkweed plants and the caterpillars all summer. We were surprised by the number of leaves the caterpillars ate in one day, fascinated when each chrysalis formed, and ecstatic when the butterflies emerged and flew away. Off they went, to create more colorful kaleidoscopes.
So this year, I have lots of milkweed in my garden. On purpose.
A Milkweed and Monarch Advocate
I’m now an advocate for growing milkweed wherever I can, trying to do my part to save the monarch. Wanna be a milkweed advocate, too? Here are some resources I found helpful and inspiring:
Monarch Joint Venture loads of educational materials, resources, programs, and ideas dedicated to preserving monarch migration routes.
Save Our Monarchs is another source of education, inspiration and action ideas about saving butterflies, primarily by encouraging people to plant milkweed.
Sh*t That I Knit is the inspiration behind the butterfly sleep masks you see Kyra and Kida wearing. While their mission isn’t about butterflies, this crew of knitters is making the world better for all sorts of people that are getting the short end of the stick. Just like the monarch.
Peace,
Sara & Kyra
