Brookside Garden Bugs

What makes a garden a successful one? Is it the pretty flowers, harvest, or the lack of weeds? I think it can be all of the above, but for our garden its the presence of insects and birds, and what we can do to nurture them. The first to arrive was a swallowtail caterpillar that came in on the Angelica we planted in the rain garden area. As we slowly began to plant I kept an eye out for the insects we were trying to create a habitat for. I was disappointed to see the deer or rabbits decided to sample some of the new vegetation available to them in the garden. So much for planting deer resistant plants. Fingers crossed I bought more asters for the garden to perk up our fall flower display. I don’t think I will be getting more carpet phlox though. I think the rabbits (or deer) are eating them to the dirt. I will have to test out substitutions and replant replacements.

I began to notice a different flurry of activity once the scarlet bee balm and woodland sunflowers began to bloom. The amount of bees and variety of the them that have arrived are incredible. We also have a slightly unknown insect called a skipper. Skippers are related to butterflies but don’t have the beautiful wings like a butterfly. We have yellow aphids attacking our swamp milkweed as well as the common milkweed variety we have in the garden. The only hope for help is a swarm of ladybugs to come to our rescue, that hasn’t happened yet.

I was in the garden last week watering and planting more plants with my husband who asked what the common milkweed was. I told him they grow like a weed and gave him permission to pull them out. At the time I gave them a quick look and didn’t see any caterpillars on them. He did just that and when I went back the next day I noticed caterpillars on the few straggly ones that he left. OMG!!! Why did I have them removed? These caterpillars are monarchs! I ran over to the pile of milkweed debris and lo and behold I found several caterpillars of various sizes munching away. I found all I could and brought them on their leaves to the swamp milkweed plants we planted in the rain garden section of the garden. Not only do they need to eat but they need their host plant to house their chrysalis before transforming to the beautiful butterfly they will become. Phew! I think I saved all of them. Last check there were 6 of them munching away. Along with the beneficial insects found in the garden, unfortunately we have destructive ones too. To my dismay I have discovered the undesirable spotted lantern fly. My only hope for help is that they don’t care for the plants in our garden.

This article wouldn’t be complete without a big thank you to the volunteers

that have come out to help weed and plant. We are getting close to having the garden complete. Thanks also go out to the Suffolk County Parks crew who removed all the non native trees and bushes in the old garden and also provided a wealth of knowledge and support in the creation of our beautiful Suffolk County Native Garden.

I happily invite you to come to Brookside County Park to take a look at the garden and enjoy the beautiful trails that meander through the park. It’s a hidden gem.