The meadow at it’s messiest: butterfly paradise

After summer’s growth, the asters have come into flower, bringing clouds of hungry butterflies. This is when the meadow is tallest, where it starts looking wild and unkempt. Asters arc in all directions, visited by multiple species of butterflies: skippers, buckeyes, blues, sulfurs… Beneath the asters, native goldenrod blooms following earlier waves of flowers now matured into fuzzy brown seeds.

These butterflies are frequent visitors to the asters.

Honeybees buzz through the flowers gathering food

These butterflies flash blue as they fly from flower to flower, only to disappear as they fold their wings to feed.

The most common visitors, skippers fly quickly between flowers.

Tall asters host a myriad of butterflies and honeybees during their fall bloom cycle.

These seeds may spread through the garden, bringing yellow goldenrod to all corners of the meadow.

This is likely the last wave of blooms before the plant goes dormant for the winter.

Soon, the flowers will fade, the stalks will bleach to browns and tans and the plants begin to release seeds, hopefully for goldfinches to dine upon. The meadow’s summer yellows and greens will transform to light tans, muted greens and rusty browns as it prepares itself for winter.

Next year, we’ll mow the straw-colored stalks to the ground, and begin an aster thinning regime to ensure that they don’t completely dominate the meadow, leaving more room for grasses, goldenrod, Indian hemp, sedges and milkweeds.

With spring rains, the sedges will shoot from the ground, greening the meadow. Grasses will grow and flower and the cycle will begin anew.