Acres of Ability

As a former professional bean walker, I’m almost ashamed to admit that I have milkweed growing in my flower garden. On purpose. {GASP!}  Yes, I’m allowing that slippery, slimy weed that stinks and makes your hands sticky and a putrid color of green, is almost impossible to pull out by the root, and reproduces faster than rabbits, prime space in my garden. Why? I like butterflies more that I hate milkweed. And lately, butterflies have been getting the short end of the stick. Within my lifetime (I know that’s a long time, but still…) butterfly habitats and food sources, such as the sticky, stinky milkweed, essential to monarch caterpillar survival, have been disappearing at an alarming rate. This decline in resources is putting a big dent in the number of kaleidoscopes (the fancy word for a group of butterflies) flitting around our yards, pollinating flowers and food, eating aphids, and generally adding beauty and delight to our lives. So last summer, when a volunteer milkwe