And plenty of milkweed, in glorious bloom. Not many years ago, the milkweed back there would be mostly chewed down to stalks by the monarch caterpillars, but today, there wasn't a caterpillar to be seen. The plants bloom undisturbed. A fact which disturbs us more than we can say.
But our spirits got slightly bouyed when we found TWO monarch caterpillar chrysalises on the solar array. Two. When this was installed in 2010, there were at one point over 50 chrysalises taking advantage of the structure, which is a horrible indication of how few monarchs are around.
We so hope that this magnificent butterfly will be able to recover from what we as a species have done to its world. Do what you can -- plant butterfly friendly gardens, and avoid like the plague the use of neonicinitoids and other sprays (like Round Up). There is so little habitat for them to the south of us, that they can't even get here to breed, or get back home. And the loss of this indicator species will leave us all horribly poorer.
Wise words, and the black eyed susans are pretty.
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