Beth's Patch ~ Gardens hanging on for November

Gardens are still looking good but gale force winds are expected and that will cause most of the flowers to die for this season.  Looking forward to being able to plant then again next spring.  

There were not as many butterflies in the gardens this year with only 35 species which is down from last year's 45 species.  We had another push of Monarchs in the past week. Tagging in the yard was done again by the Cape May Bird Observatory in relation to their Monarch Monitoring Project.  

I can't help remembering how wonderful the monarch roosts in the yard over Halloween weekend 2017.  I wonder if we'll ever see that again in the yard?  The late butterflies and hummingbirds love the mexican sage.  It wintered over last year which it shouldn't normally do, so I wonder if that will happen again this coming winter.  Time will tell.  jenny and I do love the gardens.

 

Beth's Patch ~ Gardens

My Yard ~ Gardens Mid-October

Wordless Wednesday ~ My gardens

Front Gardens

Front side garden

Side garden looking out to the bay

Back gardens

Zinnas

More Cheesier Coneflower

Coneflowers

Pink Phlox

Shasta Daisy

Gallardia

My pansies alive since large November

Awesome Record ~ 19 Buttterfly species in my garden today!

Here's a list of the species: Monarchs (15) Monarch Caterpillars (1), Black Swallowtail (4) Eastern Black Swallowtail Caterpillars (2), Sachem(74), Red Admiral (2), Question Mark (1), Common Buckeye (5), Varigated Frittilary (1), Cabbage White (3), Cloudless Sulphur (2), Silver-spotted Skipper (1), Orange Sulphur (1), Zabulon Skipper (1), American Lady (1), Painted Lady (1), Gray Hairstreak (1), Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (2), Eastern-tailed Blue (1), Fiery Skipper (1) and Spicebush Swallowtail (1).  In addition, we had caterpillars of 2 of the species and had mating couples of Monarchs, Eastern Black Swallowtails and Sachems. Here are some pictures of the gardens. I have 4 fairly large gardens in the yard along with 3 small areas that are also planted.  Guess it won't take me long to fill the whole yard with flowers and grasses.