**ARCHIVED POST ** from 2018-08-13
September 25, 2018 CHAPTER MEETING
“Butterflies will starve to death rather than eat anything they are not designed to eat.” wrote Peter Marren in his fabulous book Rainbow Dust. Native plants serve the needs of the native critters as no other plant can. We strive to identify them, save them, protect them and nourish them! We add the native plants made available by the nursery trade to our landscape, but others, showy or not, when allowed to thrive, bring great rewards. We stablished our home on a hilltop in the Texas Hill Country where no one else has ever lived; we became stewards to a rich abundance of native plants. On this small plot of land, we have repeated visits by more than 70 species of birds and butterflies, butterflies that instinctively find the native plants that nourish them, located in the traditional places they instinctively know in their genes. Inspiration to appreciate the bounty of Mother Earth can come in many ways, at any age. I was given the opportunity to see, to observe, to witness very early. My grandmother took me for walks deep into the woods, where the violets popped up purple every spring, sometimes to the creek where it was dark, dense with jungled growth where there were no flowers. Lessons! She taught me to be observant. I am still learning and observing, taking heed of what nature provides and hoping to inspire others to be observant by sharing the beauty of the butterflies that come to Red Heart.
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**ARCHIVED POST AUTHOR: kpowell **
