"Other people might want a Ferrari, but I wanted a butterfly house. I built it together with a blacksmith. We designed it together."
-Andre Rieu


As stated in the introductory blog post, the garden space around my house is very meager, so the thought is of creating a butterfly garden using containers. Here are photos of the garden as it looks now. Over the course of the next few months I'll be chronicling the transformation of blah, into a bounteous bevy of budding and blooming butterfly bewitching beauties.

 The above photo is of the blah area just below the front porch. I began by removing the funky-looking drain pipe that ran to the street and stubbed it straight out between me and the neighbor's property on to a swale that parallels both properties flowing out on to the street.

This area at the back of the house will also be transformed into part of the butterfly garden. Right now, all I have there are some plants I'm slowly gathering over time to incorporate into the scheme.

This is Daphne, a neighbor across the street who was wondering what the heck I was doing taking photos of the side of the house for. I decided to take a picture of her watching me in bewilderment.

I very much enjoy the cacti in the garden. They are fascinating in form and brilliant to behold when they bloom during the spring and summer months! The gravel is great for keeping garden maintenance down to a minimum. Unfortunately, this type of landscape doesn't attract many butterflies.


Margot Norris, a resident of Laguna Beach, sent me this link regarding the collapse in population numbers of Monarchs overwintering in southern Mexico:

Monarch Butterfly Roosts May Occupy Only 1.25 Acres This Year