It takes 5 generations a year for the monarchs. We need to provide food for them.

image from freepik 

Good morning.  Can you believe it is 50F(10C) with a high of 57F(14C). A cold front moving in so low tonight of 25F and a wind chill in the teens.  You must have the whole gambit of clothing available for this time of year, from being warm, to being cold.  Have to say it isn’t boring.  Be cool, then be warm, and mostly be safe. 
 
Australia family and friends have been having humid and wet week. Friday March 27 will be 100% rain with a high of 62F(16C) 
Evelyn wrote this: “We are to have quite a lot of rain for the rest of the week. So yesterday (March 24th) Tom got the lawns mown and I was raking up twigs and bark from gum trees and added them to the burn pile. It looks good out there. We had rain last night (March 23rd) , so it will be humid today. I am picking quite a lot of tomatoes at the moment and green beans.”   Stay dry and stay cool or stay warm.  Their fall is always changing as our spring is.  Interesting. 
 
I found this part of the article about Monarch butterflies interesting.  I didn’t realize they have 5 generations in a season.  So that is why we need to provide food for them all gardening seasons.  I will post the rest of this article on what to provide them at a different time.  Butterfly weed or orange milk weed looks like a good plant to have for them. 
 
We can all help monarch butterflies! Their numbers have plummeted by 90 percent in the past few decades.
The Monarch Migration
If you grow plentiful Asclepias tuberosa—orange milkweed (also called butterfly weed)—then you may be blessed with plenty of monarch butterflies. These gorgeous orange and black pollinators will shelter in your garden for months, from March until October.
Then, the monarch butterflies migrate south every fall—the only butterflies to migrate as birds do! They’ll fly over 3,000 miles with the Sun as their guide, traveling about 50 miles a day.
The eastern population, which makes up the bulk of the monarch population in North America, travels from as far north as southern Canada down south to the border regions of Texas and Mexico, arriving at their roosting sites in November, where they’ll hibernate for the winter.
Some monarchs that live west of the Rockies gather in southern California instead.
Monarchs may take as many as five generations to complete a migration south! Monarchs normally produce four generations in one calendar year. Each generation goes through a life cycle of four stages: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis), and adult butterfly. These four generations comprise four different butterflies that each go, consecutively, through the four stages during 1 year—until it is time to start with stage one and generation one again.
The 5 Monarch Generations
In February and March, monarchs come out of hibernation to find a mate. They then migrate north and east to find a place to lay their eggs.
This starts stage one and generation one. In March and April, the eggs are laid on milkweed plants. After about 4 days, they hatch into baby caterpillars, also called larvae. The baby caterpillar eats milkweed to grow. After about 2 weeks, when it’s full-grown, the caterpillar will find a place to attach itself to start the transformation process. It attaches itself to a stem or a leaf, and then, using silk, it spins and transforms into a chrysalis. Within the chrysalis, the old body parts of the caterpillar undergo metamorphosis to become a butterfly that will emerge in 10 days and fly away. It feeds on flowers and fruit in gardens for 2 to 6 weeks. This first-generation monarch butterfly will then die after laying eggs for generation number two.
The second generation of monarch butterflies is born in May and June, and then the third generation will be born in July and August. These monarch butterflies will go through exactly the same four-stage life cycle as the first generation did, dying 2 to 6 weeks after they become adult monarch butterflies. If the process starts early enough, there can even be a fourth generation in late August.
The final generation of monarch butterflies is different from the others. It’s born in September and October and goes through exactly the same process as the previous generations, except for one part: The butterflies don’t die after 2 to 6 weeks. Instead, they migrate to warmer climates like Texas, Mexico, and California, where they hibernate for 6 to 8 months until it is time to start the whole process over again.
Taken from https://www.almanac.com/travel-safe-monarchs
Till next time this is Becky Litterer, Becky’s Greenhouse, Dougherty Iowa [email protected]  641-794-3337  cell 641-903-9365  Beckysgreenhouse.com  Facebook Becky Kerndt Litterer or Becky’s Greenhouse