"Do what we can. The summer will have its flies." R.W.E. The Fruitfly July gardening thread.

[Faith-manor]

I have decided that my cone flowers and black eyed susans make me very happy, and they are thriving. I have a big bed around a blue spruce tree that is quite naked, and have decided it needs more of these flowers. I am soon off to the nursery to see if they have any left, and ask if it is too late to transplant and have a good chance of them making it. I am so new to flowers, that I have NO idea about this.

When I get back, the 1st cucumber of the year comes off the vine.

I know our friends on the opposite end of the globe have hit winter. How did your harvests go? Melissa, were your kids able to come home and help dh put up the harvest? How are you feeling? I need to come up with some sort of inclusive monthly saying. At the moment, I am drawing a blank.

I will post pictures of my greenhouse haul when I get back.

[Rosie_0801]

I dug up the last of my sunchokes the other day.
My banana tree's leaves are all dead, but the plant itself isn't. Black plastic around the base will keep it safe to -2C, but not lower. 😞
The over summered broad beans are all looking very cheerful about life now it isn't summer any more.
And the planted-at-the-right-time-of-year broad beans have just poked their heads above ground.
No luck at all with the murnong. Very sad about this.
Rocket is going to seed, but there's plenty of that to harvest still, and spinach.
My lime is throwing out new growth like an idiot, but it somehow hasn't got frostbite yet, even though it should have.
Jonquils are about to flower. Also idiots.
The curry leaf tree isn't dead yet, it has a few leaf buds still green, but they are attached to stems that look dead. What's with that?

I've got a lot of pruning done, one entire cotoneaster and half of an oleander so far. There will be a lot of campfire cooking in September and Daughter is making buttons out of some of the prunings for the heck of it. We thought this would be a Christmas present to amuse my aunt, whom Dd stays with for a week out of each school holidays. She's a hands on, handicraft, op shopping sort of aunt, and probably Dd's home made buttons will suit Aunt's homespun vests.
 

[maize]

We've been eating our fill of cherries for the past two weeks--it's been an excellent year for them and my mesh bags seem to be mostly effecting in keeping the cherry flies from laying eggs in them. I didn't get all of the cherries bagged so I've been giving the un-protected cherries to my chickens--they are quite obsessed and I'm sure any insect larvae just make a better treat for them!

We've been eating mulberries and raspberries, and the blackberries are starting to ripen so we will have berries to fill the harvest gap between cherries and apricots.

Edited July 2 by maize

[Navymom]

I had cone flowers at a previous home, I miss them. Thanks for reminding me of them, I will have to look into getting some for my yard.

I want to make refrigerator pickles, but I have a 4 yr. old grandson that has eaten every single one of them right off the vine. Hopefully, in the next week I will have an abundance of them and be able to keep ahead of him a bit.

It's amazing the things the grandkids will eat if they have a part in growing it. Carrots, peas, green beans, lettuce, etc. have all been hits.

[maize]

Does anyone have a favorite recipe for currants or gooseberries? Jam or jelly maybe? I have a decent gooseberry harvest for the first time, and tons of black currants.

[Rosie_0801]

4 minutes ago, maize said:

Does anyone have a favorite recipe for currants or gooseberries? Jam or jelly maybe? I have a decent gooseberry harvest for the first time, and tons of black currants.

Redcurrants in a sauce make liver an enjoyable meal.
For people who aren't prejudiced against liver, anyway.
It's about the only way I like it.

Oh, Townsends on Youtube have a currant pie recipe, but I haven't tried it yet.

[*****]

32 minutes ago, Faith-manor said:

have decided that my cone flowers and black eyed susans make me very happy, and they are thriving.

I agree with you on this, especially the black eyed susans!  They bloom for such a long time. I've also been putting them in different beds, especially hard to grow areas.  I've never had much luck with cone flowers, except this year at least they are still green and slowly growing. It's still early here, but maybe I will get blooms this year.🌻

[*****]

Can we talk manure?   I prefer rabbit and had much luck with it. Except now we don't have rabbits and finding an inexpensive source is hard these days.

I prefer rabbit manure because you don't get grasses /weeds growing.  I've had that happen before with horse manure unless it is well aged and it sure took over my flower garden.

Has anyone used llama, goat or steer manure and NOT had a problem with weeds?  Please share, I can find these quite readily.

[fairfarmhand]

Ita about coneflowers and blackeyed Susan’s. I’m cover up with blueberries. The blackberries are also starting to come in. Worked for a few hours yesterday in the garden. It all looks so good and it makes me happy when I get all the weeds out. Cucumbers are on the way. Later this week we’ll plant Halloween pumpkins.

[Faith-manor]

2 hours ago, ***** said:

Can we talk manure?   I prefer rabbit and had much luck with it. Except now we don't have rabbits and finding an inexpensive source is hard these days.

I prefer rabbit manure because you don't get grasses /weeds growing.  I've had that happen before with horse manure unless it is well aged and it sure took over my flower garden.

Has anyone used llama, goat or steer manure and NOT had a problem with weeds?  Please share, I can find these quite readily.

I wanted rabbit manure enough to buy a pet rabbit. I dump her aspen shavings from the cage with all of the goodness directly into the new tomato bed which has terrible soil with poor water infiltration and zero aeration. That was bagged stuff from. Walmart which was supposed to be good (because Lowes was out of stock on the soil I used to buy) and Walmart cow manure compost because again, couldn't get my other sources stuff. The tomato plants were doing so poorly and no amount of fertilizer helped, and I think that is because the soil was so bad, they couldn't take up the nutrients. The tomato plants that got her 1st batch of bedding are really starting to flourish. I think her manure and the remnants of her food are decaying and adding to the soil. Already the water infiltration around those plants is improving. So my hope is that by the end of summer, every bed has had some of her bedding which also doubles nicely as mulch. Once Snow flies, I will clean her cage into the compost pile in the hopes that I will have some decent compost to add next spring. I started the new compost bin with a bag of high end topsoil from a local nursery (not cheap!), some properly composted chicken manure from a local farm, and a bucket of greens leftover from the kitchen plus some coffee grounds. I have a pitchfork for turning it. But it will be a while before the pile is deep and wide enough to get to any kind of good, interior temperature. Still, I have high hopes. Mulched fall leaves will go in it.

My one regret is not getting a 2nd bunny. She isn't cheap given that I had to make a cage, buy the water bottle, and keep buying the young bunny alfalfa pellets plus Timothy hay. However, I am getting exactly what I want, and she is delightful. Several times a day I hold her on my lap. She loves to be petted. 2 buns would definitely give me enough to keep my raised beds happy.

[Faith-manor]

I was a naughty girl at the nursery.

And there might not be anything much cuter than a bumblebee. I tried to capture him when he was face planted in the milkweed, but he moved. Bumblebee butt is adorable!

 

[kbutton]

My pollinator garden in the strip by the road is going bonkers.

We’ve had handfuls of raspberries for weeks.

String beans are starting to mature, and I think there has been a tomato or two.

The beets seem to be recovering from the heat.

Minnesota midget melons are blossoming.

My DH and DS rented a bucket truck and took down a tree that had a girdling root that strangled the tree. Thankfully its buddy is still healthy because it’s on the south side of the house! And now we sort of know what to look for to be sure any trees we plant in the future don’t girdle themselves. Ours was not as obvious as the examples in the link: https://extension.umd.edu/resource/girdling-roots/

 

[Rosie_0801]

On 7/3/2024 at 12:17 AM, ***** said:

Can we talk manure?   I prefer rabbit and had much luck with it. Except now we don't have rabbits and finding an inexpensive source is hard these days.

I prefer rabbit manure because you don't get grasses /weeds growing.  I've had that happen before with horse manure unless it is well aged and it sure took over my flower garden.

Has anyone used llama, goat or steer manure and NOT had a problem with weeds?  Please share, I can find these quite readily.

I got nettle growing out of rabbit manure when my brother was keeping them, but that's okay because I like nettle.

My aunt put horse manure through a worm farm. She filled an old bathtub and left them to it. Does that take too long for you?

[Melissa in Australia]

On 7/2/2024 at 11:35 PM, Faith-manor said:

Melissa, were your kids able to come home and help dh put up the harvest? How are you feeling? 

Dh has planted the winter garden we only grow brassica like cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower in winter when there is no cabbage butterfly. We harvested the first broccoli yesterday.

I finally finished the blueberry patch. It took me 3 months, but I did it 😁 I replanted all the ones that died in the waist high weeds.  It is all completely free of weeds and mulched with  year old wood chip mulch.

Thank you for inquiring how I am feeling. I have good and not so good times throughout the day. I mostly get things done in the morning and rest in bed in the afternoon. 

Edited July 4 by Melissa in Australia

[regentrude]

I don't grow veggies, just herbs, but I started planting native flowers three years ago. Blooming now: bee balm, grey-headed coneflower, black-eyed Susan, garden phlox. The sensitive briar (the pink puffball) is wild. Slowly reducing my lawn area, a few square feet at a time.

Edited July 4 by regentrude

[regentrude]

My neighbor in the rental next door had a neglected patch in the front yard that was overgrown with invasive honeysuckle bushes, bittersweet, winter creeper -nasty stuff. I finally asked him whether I could clean that up a little.  Here's what I pulled out this week. That counts as gardening.

[Faith-manor]

4 hours ago, Melissa in Australia said:

Dh has planted the winter garden we only grow brassica like cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower in winter when there is no cabbage butterfly. We harvested the first broccoli yesterday.

I finally finished the blueberry patch. It took me 3 months, but I did it 😁 I replanted all the ones that died in the waist high weeds.  It is all completely free of weeds and mulched with  year old wood chip mulch.

Thank you for inquiring how I am feeling. I have good and not so good times throughout the day. I mostly get things done in the morning and rest in bed in the afternoon. 

I am so glad you felt well enough to work in the blueberry patch! I know it is frustrating for you to not be further along in recovery, but honestly I think you are doing amazingly!

 

[Faith-manor]

1 hour ago, regentrude said:

My neighbor in the rental next door had a neglected patch in the front yard that was overgrown with invasive honeysuckle bushes, bittersweet, winter creeper -nasty stuff. I finally asked him whether I could clean that up a little.  Here's what I pulled out this week. That counts as gardening.

Wow! You have been busy.

We have a patch at the back rock wall that we let go wild with wildflower seed for pollinators. Did the seed come up? Nope. Did invasive plants that the DNR wants eradicated come up? Yes. Guess who has to get a burn permit, burn it down, dig, and then replant actual transplants of rapid spreading good flowers? Me. I am having a hard time making myself deal with it. 🤪😬

[SHP]

On 7/2/2024 at 8:35 AM, Faith-manor said:

I have decided that my cone flowers and black eyed susans make me very happy, and they are thriving. I have a big bed around a blue spruce tree that is quite naked, and have decided it needs more of these flowers. I am soon off to the nursery to see if they have any left, and ask if it is too late to transplant and have a good chance of them making it. I am so new to flowers, that I have NO idea about this.

 

Be careful planting around trees. No mulch volcano! Roots are shallow and of you do the edging method where you cut down so the grass cannot spread into the garden you can damage the roots. There are a lot of people doing this and claiming it is fine. Sadly, the trees are damaged and will die in the next few years.

 

Do you have any specific goals for flowers?

Do you need flowers? I have irises I can mail in September.

I have been working on succession planting perennial flowers and can help if you are interested. My goal may be all the flowers, buy I am also mindful of the foliage, and focus on well behaved plants. I don't care that the Trumpet vine is native, it is agressive and one is attempting to eat a house on my block so it will not be on my list of approved plants. 

 

[wintermom]

I've been busy these last few weeks with digging and laying out a new mini-rock garden of full-sun plants. It's doing ok, though looks like I should have expanded it another foot in the front. I'll do that next year.

I also did some less fun 'gardening' of reclaiming some covered up paving stones on the sides of our driveway. When we bought the house 20+ years ago the previous owners had added some paving stones on either side of the single-wide asphalt driveway to accomodate their 2 cars parked side-by-side. We've only had one car up until last week. In the 20 years, the grass beside the paving stones had been creeping forward and covering them with 'sod.' So I went to town with my edging and digging tools and now we can park our old van and our new little hatchback side-by-side. Definitely worth the effort! 😊

 

[SHP]

My husband and I are struggling to stay on top of the weeds in the new areas.

Currently in bloom:

Hardy hibiscus (2 cultivars)

Lilliums (Scheherazade OT hybrid, Casa Blanca Oriental, Tiger lancifolium)

Daylilies (a dozen+ cultivars)

Garden Phlox

Canna (1 variety in bloom)

Astilbe

Coral bells 

 

[KungFuPanda]

Zucchini Season is starting. 😱

[Faith-manor]

15 hours ago, regentrude said:

I don't grow veggies, just herbs, but I started planting native flowers three years ago. Blooming now: bee balm, grey-headed coneflower, black-eyed Susan, garden phlox. The sensitive briar (the pink puffball) is wild. Slowly reducing my lawn area, a few square feet at a time.

These photos are really beautiful!

[prairiewindmomma]

On 7/2/2024 at 6:47 AM, maize said:

Does anyone have a favorite recipe for currants or gooseberries? Jam or jelly maybe? I have a decent gooseberry harvest for the first time, and tons of black currants.

My gooseberries this year have all gone into pies 🙂 

[Faith-manor]

12 hours ago, SHP said:

Be careful planting around trees. No mulch volcano! Roots are shallow and of you do the edging method where you cut down so the grass cannot spread into the garden you can damage the roots. There are a lot of people doing this and claiming it is fine. Sadly, the trees are damaged and will die in the next few years.

 

Do you have any specific goals for flowers?

Do you need flowers? I have irises I can mail in September.

I have been working on succession planting perennial flowers and can help if you are interested. My goal may be all the flowers, buy I am also mindful of the foliage, and focus on well behaved plants. I don't care that the Trumpet vine is native, it is agressive and one is attempting to eat a house on my block so it will not be on my list of approved plants. 

 

When I say around a Blue spruce, I should clarify that they are in a half circle approximately 15 ft away from the tree, in front of it. The area is otherwise wilding. The blue spruce is not salvageable. It is over 100 years old and has been dying from the ground up for years. On the side where the tree will eventually have to be brought down, I have not planted a thing since they will be crushed. The tree was already dying when we bought the place more than a decade ago. We aren't hastening its death, but we aren't fighting the inevitable. At this point, pollinators are more important. The bumblebees have been all over the new bee balm and cone flowers. This is just a small patch for me to enjoy and to attract pollinators to the raised beds. We will be leaving this place in five years or less.

[prairiewindmomma]

Here are some of my hydrangea. I will remove pics in a while.

 

 

 

Edited July 5 by prairiewindmomma

[prairiewindmomma]

Gooseberry pie filling:

3 c. gooseberries

1 3/4 c. sugar (can reduce—this is for the american palate)

3 T. flour

6 T. tapioca

1/8 t. salt

2 T. butter

Crush 3/4 c. of berries. I use a food processor for this, and toss in the sugar and salt at this point. Turn this out into a pot, and add the remainder of the ingredients. Cook and stir until thick and bubbly, let cool as you prepare your pastry.

Turn into a prepared crust, venting it if necessary. I usually sprinkle a bit of demarara sugar on top for texture, especially if I reduced sugar in the recipe. My great-grandmother would brush the crust with milk and then sprinkle granulated sugar…a couple of spoons worth. Bake according to pastry recipe.

 

[Rosie_0801]

Woe is me. I never had a gooseberry pie and it sounds so storybook!

[mmasc]

@prairiewindmomma Wow! Gorgeous hydrangeas! What direction do those face? 

[prairiewindmomma]

47 minutes ago, mmasc said:

@prairiewindmomma Wow! Gorgeous hydrangeas! What direction do those face? 

different directions, and none in the ideal north-east…. They were planted by a previous owner. We are starting day 2 of a hot spell and they are needing water twice a day to get by.

 

[Faith-manor]

Can someone please get Rosie_0801 a gooseberry pie, please?

Prairiewindmomma, your hydrangea melt my heart!

[prairiewindmomma]

They do bring me joy. They have historically been so easy to grow here. I killed 4-5 of them over our 25 years in the Midwest, and I could never get them or ferns to thrive. Here they both just thrive on their own. It really goes to show that location really matters.

That said, climate change is hitting hard in the PNW. These bushes all get sun scald most summers now (I have shade covers I purchased on amazon for them.) Anything new I have planted I have picked for a hotter and drier world. I suspect I will plant plumbago and lantana to replace the hydrangea at some point if we stay in the area. I nursed back the bushes after the 118F heat wave in 2022, but they are unhappy any time it is over 90F, and that happens most summers now. We are around 100F every day for the next week. We should drop back into the upper 80s/low 90s but we wont cool off to their ideal 60s and 70s until mid-September.

[Faith-manor]

35 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

They do bring me joy. They have historically been so easy to grow here. I killed 4-5 of them over our 25 years in the Midwest, and I could never get them or ferns to thrive. Here they both just thrive on their own. It really goes to show that location really matters.

That said, climate change is hitting hard in the PNW. These bushes all get sun scald most summers now (I have shade covers I purchased on amazon for them.) Anything new I have planted I have picked for a hotter and drier world. I suspect I will plant plumbago and lantana to replace the hydrangea at some point if we stay in the area. I nursed back the bushes after the 118F heat wave in 2022, but they are unhappy any time it is over 90F, and that happens most summers now. We are around 100F every day for the next week. We should drop back into the upper 80s/low 90s but we wont cool off to their ideal 60s and 70s until mid-September.

Climate change is awful. Once we hit that threshold, everything changed so rapidly. We feel it here. As a child, this area was 4b/5A depending on proximity to Lake Huron. Now we are zone 6A and many varieties of cold loving plants are beginning to struggle. It is changing the varieties of flowers I put in, and the vegetables I grow. The region has fruit trees that needed 1000 cold hours. We barely pulled out 850. Some of the orchards are really hurting. Then add insult to that of being 70°F the third week of March which woke the trees up and made everything blossom early, followed by a hard freeze of 25°F over night for 3 days the last week of April. I think a good half or more of the peach crop in SW Michigan was lost and nearly all of it in SE MI was toast. We managed to save our apples by rigging sprinklers in the tops of the trees to form ice crystals on the blossoms which insulated them to 32° which is perfectly fine. Most apples can handle down to 28° without too much loss. I have a bumper crop. But many orchards can't afford to do that for hundreds and hundreds of trees.

[*****]

On 7/3/2024 at 8:48 PM, Rosie_0801 said:

My aunt put horse manure through a worm farm. She filled an old bathtub and left them to it. Does that take too long for you?

And he had no problem with weeds?  That could be interesting, at least for next year's garden.  

[Rosie_0801]

5 minutes ago, ***** said:

And he had no problem with weeds?  That could be interesting, at least for next year's garden.  

She kept doing it, so she must have been happy with the results.

[SHP]

I have been taking climate change into consideration when picking out my plants. Granted, I sometimes ignore it. Arborvitae are advised against but I still have some...

[Faith-manor]

Look what Mark bought for me!!!

Well, okay not just for me. It is rather more for him but I am for sure driving it. It came with the plow blade so now he doesn't have to spend hours and hours and hours snow blowing our drive, my mom's, or hire his mom's plowed (very expensive and the local company set the blade so low they destroyed her driveway - $1500 to re-gravel it and fill in the pits). We will use it when we buy our property up north for leveling the build site and the camp spots, and disc a patch for the oats and dent corn I want to grow. It came with all the implements, and runs like a dream!

[prairiewindmomma]

Congrats!!! 

[prairiewindmomma]

I am so glad y’all got to see my hydrangea while they were looking pretty. They are deeply unhappy with day 3 of 100F weather. Anything not covered by the shade cover is scorched. 

[Faith-manor]

12 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

I am so glad y’all got to see my hydrangea while they were looking pretty. They are deeply unhappy with day 3 of 100F weather. Anything not covered by the shade cover is scorched. 

That is rough.

No one is having a good year. We have had a cool down and overnight lows in the mid-50s. Now, my skin just loves 68-70° during the day, and cool but comfy evenings. My stupid tomato plants which had finally started thriving are acting like they have been dumped at the North Pole. Buck up and suck it up, Tomatoes! 😠

Edited July 7 by Faith-manor

[popmom]

We are not having such extremes in weather here. It was a hot June, but nothing extreme.

I am cautiously optimistic over my tomatoes. I have more nice, big, green tomatoes growing all at the same time than I've ever had. I always forget to label them. I'll have to wait until they ripen to know which varieties are doing so well. 

I may put bird netting over them. They are so perfect looking right now. 

[wintermom]

I just spent a couple hours removing the common burdock weeds from the side of the house. There are a few more at the back fence, to be removed another day. I did not take photos of my own, but here are images from some other unlucky gardener. Mine were about 6 feet tall. Hate these guys because of the burrs and my dogs. 👿

[Faith-manor]

I harvested three cucumbers today, 2 jalapenos, and 2 banana peppers today. That was really nice.

[prairiewindmomma]

I worked outside until it hit 88F (at 11am) and am now in for the day. It’s day 4 of 100F weather in a row. 
 

I built A frame shade structures for our baby trees last year but they are too big for them now. I ripped the shade cloth off of the a frames (which we took down last fall) and just draped it over the trees. It is bending some branches, but hopefully they will bounce back. Right now they are getting enough leaf scorch that they are in the danger zone, so this is a risk I took.

Hydrangea under shade cover are holding their own, pretty sure I have two other bushes that may not make it. 😞 I am pretty sure I lost my raspberry crop (lots of fruit drop and scorch). My blueberry is droopy and the berries are set but not ready for picking. I am hoping I dont lose my grape vine or strawberries.

My tomatoes are happy. Normally we dont have enough heat until late July for them to take off flowering, but they are flowering and fruiting like crazy.

 

[Faith-manor]

I discovered more branches sagging badly under the weight of apples, and the apples aren't near full grown either. Mark said he will have to build more supports. I am nervously happy about all the apples. It is going to be A LOT of work.

[wintermom]

Just a warning to those who may sow wildflowers. Unexpected and beautiful flowers can sometimes pop up years after sowing the seeds (mixed wildflowers from a packet). These just came up after 3 years of sowing. They are gorgeous purple wild foxglove. The leaves are toxic to humans and pets (digitalis) and the fine hairs can cause a rash if you touch them. Wildflowers self-seed and can blow into your garden even if you don't plant them yourself.

I'm trying to decide if I put fencing around them so the dogs can't get to them or try to transplant them. I've been wanting foxglove for years, but if I planted them intentionally it would have been in the front yard where the dogs don't go. 🙃

[wintermom]

I just finished a walk in the woods where we bring the dogs. I wish I had these kinds of wildflowers in my yard! 

 

[Carrie12345]

On 7/5/2024 at 1:05 PM, Faith-manor said:

Climate change is awful. Once we hit that threshold, everything changed so rapidly. We feel it here. As a child, this area was 4b/5A depending on proximity to Lake Huron. Now we are zone 6A and many varieties of cold loving plants are beginning to struggle. It is changing the varieties of flowers I put in, and the vegetables I grow. The region has fruit trees that needed 1000 cold hours. We barely pulled out 850. Some of the orchards are really hurting. Then add insult to that of being 70°F the third week of March which woke the trees up and made everything blossom early, followed by a hard freeze of 25°F over night for 3 days the last week of April. I think a good half or more of the peach crop in SW Michigan was lost and nearly all of it in SE MI was toast. We managed to save our apples by rigging sprinklers in the tops of the trees to form ice crystals on the blossoms which insulated them to 32° which is perfectly fine. Most apples can handle down to 28° without too much loss. I have a bumper crop. But many orchards can't afford to do that for hundreds and hundreds of trees.

Similar story in the Poconos, PA. It wasn’t THAT many years ago when I felt like our area would stay best for climate (relative to others.) And yet we’ve already had many, many more especially hot days this year than we used to, after yet another late freeze.   
Still faring better, but I wouldn’t say well.

[Faith-manor]

2 hours ago, wintermom said:

I just finished a walk in the woods where we bring the dogs. I wish I had these kinds of wildflowers in my yard! 

 

I have the milkweed. A huge patch. One showed up in a convenient spot a few years ago which I assume is because a bird dropped seeds. I let it go, and now I have the occasional butterfly, and numerous bumblebees who think it is wonderful. Thankfully it pulls easy because now it pops up in all kinds of places where I don't want it.

[wintermom]

10 minutes ago, Faith-manor said:

I have the milkweed. A huge patch. One showed up in a convenient spot a few years ago which I assume is because a bird dropped seeds. I let it go, and now I have the occasional butterfly, and numerous bumblebees who think it is wonderful. Thankfully it pulls easy because now it pops up in all kinds of places where I don't want it.

I have a few rogue milkweed, too. I make sure to keep them, while weeding other stuff. Mine haven't bloomed yet, though. I have a bunch of butterflies in my yard from other wildflowers. Hopefully the milkweed will keep returning every year and eventually attract some monarchs.