Plant Weeds, Not Grass! And Do a Butterfly a Favor



Mexican Milkweed



Well, not just any weed...

Maybe you saw last week that the number of Monarch butterflies coming out of Mexico plummeted this spring. Problem is, they are finding less and less to eat.

If you plant milkweed, (maybe even tear out a patch of your lawn) you get some beautiful visitors to your garden as they flutter north, and if you look carefully around your yard, you just might find a beautiful bright green chrysallis (cocoon) about the size of your fingernail, with a stunning gold band around the top.

Roger Sanderson, director of horticulture at the Texas Discovery Garden at Fair Park in Dallas, told me that for years the Monarchs' winter home in the mountains of Mexico have been shrinking due to logging and development. The good news is the Mexican government has smartened up in recent years, and has stopped clear-cutting the forests, and maximized the tourist industry of us nature lovers who want to see the local evergreens draped with thousands of monarchs resting on their winter vacation.

A few weeks ago they left their vacation spots, headed north. They'll be here in North Texas in a month or so, and they'll be seeing you in Ohio, Michigan and Ontario in May and June. 

They eat and breed along the way, at least, they'd like to do so. Momma Monarch is very fussy about where she lays her eggs; she'll only lay them on milkweed, where her eggs will hatch into caterpillars, which love the stuff.

Used to be, every corn, wheat and soybean field in Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, (follow me along the Monarch migration route) and into Ohio and Michigan had loads of milkweed between the crop rows, and in the ditches along the roads.    

Today, genetically modified plants can stand to be doused with "weed" killing herbicides, so the farms have plenty of wheat, but no milkweed -- a virtual food desert for Monarchs. They're starving to death.

So give a butterfly a break. Tear out part of your lawn, and put in some milkweed. Heck it's even pretty! Mexican Milkweed (pictured above) is a tropical plant, says Sanderson, so it will grow in colder climates if planted after frost, and will feed Momma Monarch and her babies all summer long. Roger said it's marginal here in North Texas where we do get killing frosts, but buddy, I'm here to tell you that I've grown Mexican Milkweed for years, and only planted it once. The stuff re-seeds itself, and grows, well, like a weed! 

I suspect I've accidentally picked up some milkweed seeds in the fall when I clean up the garden debris, and composted it. I've taken the compost, and spread it around the potted ficus and palm trees in our sunroom, and low and behold,  we get milkweed sprouting in the middle of the winter. (That's what you see here.)

If you live in this area, be sure and stop by the Texas Discovery Gardens spring plant sale April 20 and 21. Roger says his greenhouse is bursting with Mexican Milkweed that flower in beautiful reds and orange, and he may even have a few native milkweeds for sale, too.