SoilMates KC

04/27/2025

Our yard is bursting with blooms. From dwarf crested irises to Dutchman’s pipevine (so close!) to geraniums and blackberry.

We also added a few new trees/bushes to the yard, but more info on those later. For now enjoy the sneak peak of the caterpillar friend, a red-spotted purple (Limenitis arthemis) who might have driven the purchase of this host plant.

04/17/2025

Chris said that he saw the first (possibly two) hummingbird of the season yesterday and today our coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) started opening up blooms! As you can see, it’s just ready to explode with flowers already!

Can’t wait to see our hummingbird friends back in our yard!

04/13/2025

It’s officially been spring for a couple of weeks now and we’ve already done all of our yard cleanup by trimming back last year’s growth to about six inches above the ground. Our trimmings were all gathered and stored behind the shed to allow any of our slumbering friends to finish their rests.

We have so much coming up and bursting back to life. The prairie pussytoes, Virginia bluebells, and golden Alexanders are already in bloom, the nine barks are budding out, and the coral honeysuckle is just a couple of days away from bursting into full blooms!

I cannot wait to see all of the amazing changes that happen with the yard this year!

09/04/2024

You might wonder what you're looking at or for when you see this picture. You might say to yourself, "Matt, what are you trying to show me?" If you look at the leaves in my hand, you'll see that they have near-perfect semi-circles removed from them. You might also say "Matt, we saw your caterpillar post earlier. Clearly, that's what happened to these leaves."

It actually isn't. Caterpillars will eat the ENTIRE leaf all the way down to the stem. This leaf damage is done by one of my other favorite groups of insects, the Megachilids. Megachilids, or family Megachilidae (mega-ky-lid-ay), the leafcutter bees. These amazing bees will cut these circles from leaves and flowers to line their egg chambers. As solitary cavity nesters, these bees will find a hollow stem (much like a plant stalk or open-ended piece of bamboo (we also have some in our garden fencing) then they will start to fill it with plant material that they have cut into these circles. They lay their eggs in these chambers, fill them with plant material, close it off, and start a new chamber for a new egg. A hollow could have many egg chambers in it.

This is why we leave our plants untouched until spring.

09/02/2024

Today we found a friend who makes my heart so incredibly happy to see in our yard! This is a Polyphemus moth caterpillar, Antheraea polyphemus, on our river birches. We found a SINGLE egg a few weeks ago on a different cluster of trees and I just HAPPENED to see this guy munching away while I was mowing., It is currently unknown if it was the same egg we had seen previously. This species is one of the North American giant silkworm moths, family Saturniidae, and some of my favorite moths. Also one of the five largest species of moths in North America. Everything that these moths will ever eat, they eat as a caterpillar. Adult Saturniids don't have digestive tracts or mouthparts, their sole purpose is to find a mate and reproduce. They will starve to death within ten days of emerging as adults.

07/26/2024

07/26/2024

This particular toad has been around the yard for a while. I was on the patio today and he was rushing along the edge to the birdbath that I had just refilled and put the bubbler back in. The ground was wet and cool. He hurried his way along and got under the birdbath and dug himself a little hollow under a New Jersey Tea. I realized that he couldn’t get to the cool water above him, so I grabbed a saucer that was empty, added water and a couple of rocks as ramps in and out. It took about 10-15 minutes, but he got right in and soaked in his new pool.

When we garden, we often tell ourselves that it’s for the pollinators, specifically the bees and butterflies. We then remember that birds eat seeds and insects, so we garden for the birds. We often forget about the frogs and toads that also eat the insects and worms. Then we forget that snakes eat toads and frogs and worms and and birds and snakes.

Remember that all of these plants and animals are connected. What we do for one, we do for all. When you’re gardening, make sure that you have water available to some of our less vertically inclined friends. We do this for them too.

07/25/2024

Duke just loves to be outside laying in the yard being a Sun Dog.

07/24/2024

We finally have a couple of black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) caterpillars on our golden Alexander (Zizia aurea)!

I love swallowtail caterpillars so much. They disguise themselves as bird p**p for the first couple of instars, then they develop one of my favorite insect organs, the osmoterium. That’s the organ that protrudes from the front of their head when they’re disturbed. It emits a foul odor and generally resembles a snakes tongue.

07/19/2024

A few of my favorite pictures from the last few days in our yard. We’ve had some amazing visitors including our second (seen) mantid fly, a couple of eastern tiger swallowtails, and at least two young ruby-throated humminbirds!

07/14/2024

Our purple passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) is absolutely enormous. (Believe it or not, there’s actually a post and two trellises in there.) We finally found our first fruits!

Last year, we started it too late for them to completely mature, but here’s to hoping that they will this year.

07/09/2024

This week we're going to talk all about wildflowers! This is the area where you really get to play, with shape, size, color, structure, and what wildlife you want to attract (i.e. some flowers attract hummingbirds better than others). There are also some important keystone species you'll want to include which attract a huge number of insects (i.e. goldenrods, sunflowers, and asters)....

This week we’re going to talk all about wildflowers! This is the area where you really get to play, with shape, size, color, structure, and what wildlife you want to attract (i.e. some flower…