March 2014 – Michy's Garden …n'stuff

I was at work yesterday cleaning up an area in the garden where I work so I could add a few new plants. I started bagging up my garbage when I noticed this guy chillin on some of the chiococca leaves I had trimmed……..

I took him in the office where me and my co-worker researched and discovered that this funny looking guy was a Pluto Spinx Moth Caterpillar. Also known as Xylophanes pluto for those of you who like scientific names. These seem to be pretty widespread in tropical and subtropical lowlands. There range is Brazil north through Central America, Mexico, and the West Indies to Florida and South Texas.

For some more information, visit Butterflies and Moths of North America.

Here are a few more pictures I took of this cute guy including a chrysalis of one of the Pluto spinx caterpillars going through ‘the change’. Before I knew the name of this caterpillar I was calling him the Pinocchio caterpillar cause, well, you get it…..

Happy Gardening! 🙂

I had an old strawberry pot sitting around and since I don’t have enough sun anymore in my backyard to grow strawberries, I thought I would make a nice succulent planter with some extra cuttings I had.

I just took the pot and filled it with some cactus soil. And next just got creative on what to add to it. Most of my succulents babies are at my parents house growing since they can provide more sun for them to thrive.

This is a picture of my little ones at my house before I took them to my parents house.

Back to the planter…..

I first added plants to the top. I wanted to use something that would really stand out so I did a cutting of an Aeonium that I had, then around it I added some sedums in different colors so that it would hang over from the edge of the pot. And for fun, I added a few kalanchoe delagoenis or also know as ‘mother of millions’. These particular succulents produce an enormous amount of buds and can become a bit of a weedy pest but they are quite pretty in my opinion.
Next, I added some random cuttings I had left lying around to the holes in the sides of the pot. They include, Echeveria, A few different Sedum species, Kalanchoe, a bromeliad, Aeonium and some Baby sun rose ‘Aptenia cordifolia’.

Since I don’t have a lot of sun in my backyard, after the plants have rooted in and are established I will put it out front of my house where it will get lots of sun. I am excited to see how everything grows in together!

Happy Planting! 🙂