The Butterfly's Bar at Deer Run

Hello butterfly fans.

Tidied up the meadow micro-habitat a bit this weekend. New cement posts & railings for the barrier. Posted new flags for the lupine (blue), milkweed (orange), and plain old pollinator food (pink and yellow). We have some amazing new large lupine spreading out over the lot, but are down from the 125 plants that we had a couple years ago. I had a foo dog out on the lawn in an attempt to mark my lot as private - but someone took it. The wild strawberries and the bee balm are spreading a great deal.

Squirrels had been busy last year. I must have ripped up over a hundred baby oak trees and their acorns. Better that I get to them early before national grid sprays "agent orange" on them leaving dead spots.

And I managed to wade around the meadow for about an hour and did not get one tick on me - call that a win.

Hey there B. Spa B. Fly fans. Here is your spring update on the Butterfly Bar.

No mow May is here. Keep your dandelions for as long as possible. If you can't stand them give them a good yank not a sq**rt of ... corporate greed!

Also, May is Lyme Disease awareness month. Let's keep those ticks off of us! We will be mowing select areas to keep the ticks and mice population down.

I'll be puttering around the meadow in the next couple weeks - reposting the flags for the flowers. (Key pinned to the top). (I will be tucking my socks in my pants, I have no desire to be Icky Ticky Tavy meat).

Threw several big bags of wildflower seeds down for the Butterfly Bar - fingers crossed that we get a nice meadow this year.

Color key to the flags on the corner lot:
Blue = Lupine
Yellow = Other flower
Orange = Milkweed

No mow May. Should it be a thing here. I beelieve so.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/28/travel/no-mow-may-wisconsin.html?fbclid=IwAR20fmhvUJmrr4cKCGEVOAebrPU7zD_Qsr2_Q9Dz_8atXi97GwdxvlzcPd0

In Wisconsin: Stowing Mowers, Pleasing Bees Can the No Mow May movement help transform the traditional American lawn — a manicured carpet of grass — into something more ecologically beneficial?

Mary Lou fans. Unfortunately keeping Mary Lou up was too much work after I moved from Deer Run. However if you are wondering what all the flags stand for they are color coded by flower type. Blue for Lupine (+150), Green for milkweed (+40), and Yellow for plain old pollinator food. (The bee balm is not marked because it has gone crazy... but the bees don't mind).