It is hard to believe that it has already been 15 years since I took this image of Sophia in the back part of our farm. We were spreading milkweed seeds with the hope that we would see more milkweed plants - and more monarchs - in future years.
By doing this each year that we have lived at our farm, we have many more milkweed plants now than we did in 1995 when we moved here. We are seeing a positive impact of our actions.
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The original photograph is of a migrating monarch on one of many swamp milkweed plants that are blooming in the west pasture near the seasonal pond. By using the Waterlogue app, I can change the image into a watercolor image.
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I was happy to see the swamp milkweed blooming this year. I had put some dormant plants out in the west pasture last year in the spots where there were depressions in the soil left by the horses' hooves. Surprisingly, the plants came up this year and are doing well. The monarchs (and the bees!) are loving the milkweed.
It was also nice to see that there are monarch caterpillars on the common milkweed. Pretty soon, there will be a chrysalis and a new butterfly!
The purple native wildflowers are blooming prolifically! The Ironweed in the west pasture is attracting the Swallowtail butterflies while the Prairie Onions in the gardens are providing meals for the bees.
I love seeing the Eastern Tiger Swallowtails enjoying the flowers in the backyard!
