Pat, there can never be too many pics with descriptions! your cleaned up garden will be wonderful come spring. It looks great already, so just imagine...I love the armadillo!

Cynthia

http://149.168.1.196/nbnc/index.html

Here is a website for butterflies for NC. It will even list them by county. I live in Burke County, and a have seen 2 or 3 this summer. Also, a yellow butterfly that looks like a monarch.

Danielle

Although never what you want to hear after so much work, I think the first photo looks great!! But I want the stuffed look, for now ;-) "CRAMMED TOGETHER" a neighbor called it.

I also can foresee how beautiful the cleaned up area will be as well.

I am now slightly panicked for I have Maples galore in my 7yo yard (DH's idea but we do need the shade)...I am already cursing the roots and ready to remove sod from around the trunks.

That's a major undertaking you've finished. Everything looks so neat. You're going to be happy with how fabulous it looks next year.

On the other hand, I'd give my eye teeth to have a garden that looks like it did before...LOL.

Since I started working on empty existing beds at my father's about 2 years ago I found roots throughout. Pulled them up and cut off at borders. I was so bummed when I found them grown right back into the beds within a year. Like you, the trees aren't going anywhere so plants will just have to grow around them. Only trouble now is that when I add or need to move something I can't tell the difference between tree/vine feeder roots and what belongs to my plants!

Second photo of Buddleia definitely looks like a Monarch.

Left wing showing in photo looks a little mottled or crumpled in center. It could either be one that's newly eclosed and hasn't yet filled out wings with body fluid or it's an older Monarch who's wings are beginning to show wear although they usually show wear on the edges. Fall migration back to Mexico is underway.

The others are little cluster of Aphrodite Fritillary according to cool website for which Danielle provided link.

I've still got about a dozen Monarch caterpillars on Tropical Milkweed I grew for the overflow cats from Swamp Milkweed that's hardy here.

I only see maybe one Monarch every couple days or so but they've obviously been around since I've had so many eggs laid this summer. They were very late due to cool/wet weather right throuogh mid-July.

This year was first time I grew 4 O'clocks. After I read that you have so many reseed I looked them up and was surprised to find they'll sprout up this far north. Thought dropped seeds would germinate too early to survive here. Ooops! There's gonna be a lot of seedlings around...LOL. Love that fragrance, though.

Congrats on getting back into your gardens. That trellis for your Clematis is beautiful.

Newbie - that monarch I believe had just come into being, since DH said it was fanning its wings on the front porch before I saw him around back in the butterfly bush. I had no idea they became butterlies so late in the summer! Anyway, now I'm hooked and trying to find out what I can do to attract more of them next year.

And yes, the garden "before" does look good to me now, in comparison, but the good-looking part was actually mostly tiny annuals I had stuck in that grew huge and took over, sprawling, hiding and stunting all the perennials. In gardening, there's always something good in the bad, I guess.

pat, I too love the cottage garden look of your BEFORE picture, sorry. Glad that someone else said it first. I do understand why you did it, but I'm too old to revamp my beds, I think.
Regarding maple tree roots: Not all maple roots are so shallow, so don't assume you have to do anything now, austin. You might want to go to the Trees forum and search out which maples grow deeper.
Pat (SE Michigan)

Pat, The trellis the clematis is growing on looks so much like one I recently bought at Lowes. I'm curious...will you leave the clematis growing in the pot all winter? You are a zone 8 and I am zone 5 so not sure if that would work for me. I love the trellis but haven't decided what to put on mine. Can I leave a clematis in a flower pot all winter?

patlovesdirt, I didn't mean to say I liked your garden the way it was "better" than the beautiful revamp...just that I haven't reached the point where I can get anything to grow and bloom as lovely as you do in whatever arrangement you have...LOL.

It's easier than I thought to attract Monarchs. Just grow Asclepias (milkweed) and Monarchs seem to find it somehow.

This was only second summer I had milkweed. Last year I reared them indoors and released. Didn't have time or energy for hand rearing this year but I check on cats and chrysalids everyday outside on milkweed.

I have Incarnata 'Ice Ballet' (swamp; white flowers), Tuberosa (sp. orange flowers) and grew well over a dozen Curassavica (tropical; yellow, orange & red combination flowers) to supplement two species that are perennial here in Zone 6. Had to start tropical milkweed indoors so they'd have enough leaves and then time to flower in this zone by early-mid summer. Doubt that would be a problem in your zone 8. Flower colors/hues on tropical milkweed are hard to guarantee from collected seed since they're cross-pollinated so heavily.

I've still got too many cats that had better hurry up because they could get caught up here in the cold. They need to form chrysalids and eclose before it gets too cold if they're to start their journey to Mexico to overwinter.

I'm afraid some of them won't eclose from chrysalis stage before it gets too cold for them to fly. If that happens I'll detach them from wherever they made chrysalis, reattach to netting container, overwinter in unheated garage and bring them out when weather warms up NEXT year. Can't bring chrysalids into heated area during cold or they'll eclose without outdoor heat to fly anywhere let alone to Mexico for the winter.

You're new guy will be on his/her way to Mexico in next couple of weeks. Somehow they find each other and start to fly en masse down south and then across southern US over to Mexico.

Most people think Butterfly caterpillars are as "gross and icky" as other creepy crawlies in the dirt. Once you see the whole process from tiny little cat to seeing beautiful butterfly eclose from chrysalis you never look at the caterpillars the same again. I've gotten a little maternal with them and talk to them...I know, I've gone over the Butterfly edge but sometimes I have to rescue them from falls off tropical milkweed in containers, fights among different size cats whom I have to separate to different plants (larger ones will eat small ones) and the like. Found one newly eclosed Monarch on the ground struggling to dry its wings after its chrysalis had fallen. Picked it up and it held onto my finger in the sun for a while. Then I told him I couldn't sit there for hours and put him on milkweed stalk with flowers so he'd have nectar when ready to eat.

If you want perennial milkweed the species Asclepias incarnata has beautiful pink flowers. Doesn't bloom for very long but presence or lack of flowers doesn't seem to determine whether or not they lay eggs on milkweed. They just find it somehow. The Tuberosa is much smaller and comes with usual orange flowers but there's a yellow flowered cultivar. All milkweed I have in butterfly garden was stripped bare before cats were finished eating so I had to transfer them to tropical planted in containers. Unfortunately, I lost many leaves back there to either slugs and/or mildew from too many weeks of continuous rain.

Believe it or not I've never seen a Monarch nectaring from anything but the Zinnia I grow for nectar. It may be that I don't have enough sunny space to plant swaths of nectar plants and have to rely on too many containerized nectar plants in sunny places...I just don't know.

That situation doesn't seem to deter hordes of Skippers of all kinds and Cabbage Whites from nectaring on everything and anything. I grew some Verbena bonariensis from seed this year. Big attractor of any creature that wants nectar. I'll probably be sorry when there are tons of selfsown seedlings next year but wanted to try it since it's heralded as a no fail attractor and it was that. NOT for small gardens but I've seen so many photos here on GW where it looks lovely among other taller perennials. Besides, it's deer, rabbit and groundhog resistant which is a big consideration for me.

Those darn maple trees have grown so much over past 3 years that my sunny spots to grow most things have disappeared. That's why I grew most of the tropical milkweed in huge storage containers I got from a recycling center and rehabilitated.

If you want seeds of any of the 3 varieties I have just email me through GW with your address and I'll send them to you once they've dried.

The roots of the tropical might just be winter hardy in your zone 8. It would probably have top winter die off since zone 9 is probably limit for evergreen with it.

Sorry for the "Monarch tome" but it's one thing I gotten to know about in gardening and I don't have a vast pool of successes to talk about yet! :)

I still love your garden "before and after"!

Newbie - Thanks for all the information! And I'm really grateful to you (and others) for what you're doing to help these wonderful creatures! I'm realizing how I've unconsciously set about to make my backyard a sanctuary - for me, but mostly for whatever choses to live in it - and sense a similar tone from you and many other posters here on GW. Anyway, the first appearance of the monarch in my yard and your great enthusiasm have really piqued my interest. I'll definitely be planting as much milkweed as I have room for. Now that I'll soon be starting the backyard overhaul, I'll be sure to leave lots of room for the new seedlings I'm going to grow. I'll definitely take you up on your offer of seeds - thanks!

As to the before and after, no offense taken, LOL! Of course, the "before" pic was that garden in its full bloom, bursting at the seams glory, while the "after" was end-of-season ratty, cut back and, well, done for the year.