"Earth Day / Mirth Day"
April 18, 2012
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Dear Gardening Bug,
When my dad died almost 14 years ago, we decided to dedicate the Butterfly House at Rockledge Gardens in his memory. He had watched us build the butterfly house and enjoyed observing the various stages in the life of the butterflies. A plaque in the Butterfly House has a picture of my father, along with this quote:
A drop of rain for sorrow
A ray of sunshine for mirth
We are closer to God in a garden
than any place else on earth
I'm not sure who wrote this quote, but it's always been comforting to me. Another favorite is "Earth laughs in flowers" (and I do know who penned that one: Ralph Waldo Emerson). And with Earth Day coming up this Sunday, it is a great time to laugh and celebrate with flowers and butterflies!
The very first public talk I gave about butterflies was just one month after my dad died. It was at Barnes and Noble in Melbourne, and it was quite an emotional experience for me. Both my mother and Kevin were there, and it took every bit of my self control to keep from tearing up. Butterflies are very powerful in their symbolism.
The Butterfly House is quite active during these warm spring days! This Saturday our seminar is on Butterfly Gardening. We'll give you some good basics on how to attract butterflies to your garden and discuss some of our favorite host and nectar plants. After the session you can take a stroll through the Butterfly House and observe the stages of butterfly development. It's a peaceful place; if you listen closely, you can actually hear the butterfly wings fluttering!
Above: Queen butterflies; below (clockwise from top): sky vine, coleus, plectranthus and sunscape daisy, and African iris. See more of this week's "garden treasures."
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HOT Peppers!
Though jalapenos are plenty hot for me, they are actually one of the mildest hot peppers! One of our favorite Florida growers has decided to specialize in "insanely hot" peppers, and this week we received our first shipment.
Merrideth's sign describes their rating in Scoville units and I must say, my mouth burns just reading about them. But they are beautiful plants, and the peppers are something to behold, in their various shapes and sizes.
Peppers handle the summer heat well, so it's a good time to plant them.
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 This Week at The Farm
Our tomatoes are really developing, and it should be just a matter of days till we see them color up. Collard greens are ready, and I cooked up my first pot of them last night ... they were SO tender and tasty!
We'll have some great herbs at the market this weekend as well.
Right: edible flowers ... nasturtium and borage.
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