Turning Our Backyard into a Place to Encounter Nature

An observant child should be exposed to things worth observing.

Charlotte Mason, Home Education, Volume 1, p. 69

The parents' first priority should be putting as much of nature as possible within the child's notice.
Volume 1, p. 96

We are so fortunate to have such amazing nature trails just a ten minute drive from our home, and we have already seen and learned so much there. Yet, I want my boys to be exposed to much more: nature they can experience on a daily basis. I have come up with a basic plan to turn our small suburban backyard into a place my children can encounter, observe, inspect, study, identify and explore nature and all its wonders (or at least more wonders than we currently see anyway ;) ) ! Not a small task for a relatively tiny backyard that already contains a trampoline and swing set.

Two weekends ago we, quite by accident, started a butterfly garden. I had small contained area of our yard that was filled with ground cover before we got Wrigley, our 14 month old Golden Retriever. The ground cover died from constantly being trampled and the space had turned into a mud pit. I had the idea to start a container garden but hadn't done anything towards that end.

Then my sweet neighbor brought us a baby milkweed plant she started from seeds. We wanted to plant it and see if we attracted any monarchs. That is until I woke up last Saturday to find most of the plant (still in its original container sitting in my kitchen) already devoured by three tiny monarch caterpillars that had just hatched. The boys and I trekked off to a local nursery looking for more food for these voracious eaters.

That's when I got the idea to turn that entire area into a (tiny) butterfly garden! There is a butterfly garden at the trails I mentioned, another at the Houston Zoo and one more at the elementary school by us. We love exploring these, but I had never considered having one in my very own backyard!!! The owner at the nursery kindly showed us around and led us to several plants that would attract a variety of butterflies. All these plants have gone into four planters, two large and two small, in that once muddy mess. TaDa.....

Here are the plants we started with in case anyone else gets the itch to start their own butterfly garden! :) Btw, I just googled "How to attract butterflys to your garden" and "Houston" to come up with the list I worked from.

milk weed, Penta and Salvia (victorian blue)

dill, fennel and Sedum (summer glory)
The back of this pot is empty waiting for a passion vine
to arrive at the nursery.

yellow shrimp plant and canna
And not pictured in the final pot is more milkweed and Sedum (voodoo)

Below are our first two friends. The top caterpillar came on one of the milkweed plants I bought and the bottom one hatched in our kitchen.

And yesterday, as a birthday present to dh (Happy 38th, Sweetie!) look what a mommy Monarch left us...

More eggs. I have counted seven new eggs so far!!! And look how big and fat this little guy has gotten...

He was the smaller of the two up above!

We still have a way to go but it will be a labor of love and a work in progress in the coming weeks, months and hopefully years. I'll be sure to show more photos as our tiny garden progresses. We are making certain to obtain only milkweed that hasn't been sprayed to keep our monarch friends healthy, too. The fun thing is that, because our plants are not sprayed, we will (and already do) have aphids. We will need to get lady bugs to eat the aphids and the lizards will come out from everywhere to eat the lady bugs. How fun!

My next goal before summer gets underway is to start a compost pile. I have been looking up ideas for how to do this successfully with kids, a dog and a small backyard. By starting a compost pile we will reduce the amount of trash we are adding to the landfill and creating yet another place in our yard for more creatures to call home.

I also want to add a few bird feeders to our yard, but I want to research and be sure to only add feeders that will attract species that will not eat our butterfly friends. We have no trees in our yard so I will hang feeders off our garage.

Lastly I want to start a garden next spring. I plan to till and start preparing beds in the fall. For the past few years I have said time and again that I am dying to start a garden but I just haven't made the plunge. The one time I tried to grow tomatoes seven years ago was a disaster and still has me gun shy to try again. Still, even if we fail this first time, it will be such a learning experience for all of us!

If anyone has other ideas for how to attract more wildlife to our tiny yard, I'd love to hear it. Except putting in a pond. A two year old and a dog who loves water would not make a pond a happy thing in our yard!



PS. I am still learning this whole flower thing, especially what in the world needs to be capitalized and what doesn't. If I goofed, please email me so I can correct it! :) Thanks!