Skip to content
Haley Maddox
Spring Garden · Pittsburgh

The garden

Field cards for what grows and visits here, and the monarchs I raise.

Learning as I grow.

Zone
6
Lawn out
2021
Supervisors
Colt & Wes
A tomato harvest from the garden
Wes in the zinnias
The squash patch
The whole yard · one drawing

Bird’s-eye view

The birds have been reviewing my garden for years. Audubon agreed. Here’s their view: every bed, path, and flower in one drawing.

See what the birds see →
Bees · 20 cards

Tell the bumble bees apart

Look at the thorax, then count the stripes on the abdomen from the waist back. Segment 2 does most of the work.

The carpenter bee is the look-alike: no fuzz on its abdomen.

Native bees in Pennsylvania, by family
Bumble bees and kin118
Sweat bees110
Mining bees100
Mason and leafcutter81
Cellophane and masked24
Meet all 20 bees →
BeeThoraxSeg 1Seg 2Seg 3Rest
Common easternBombus impatiens
Half-blackBombus vagans
Brown-beltedBombus griseocollis
Carpenter beeXylocopa virginica
Lemon yellowPale, messy yellowBrownish yellowBlackShiny, hairless black

Workers shown. Patterns: Vermont Center for Ecostudies and Watching Bees.

Flowers · 30 plant cards

Asters feed 100 kinds of caterpillar

Asters Symphyotrichum

Blooms Aug to Oct

100caterpillar species33specialist bees
Explore my garden flower collection →
Bee to watch
Aster mining bee, Andrena asteris
Caterpillar
Pearl crescent, Phyciodes tharos
Fun fact
Its bee nests underground, marked by tiny sand mounds
Start here · Build your own A bloom calendar for your garden Pick your zone and plants from my field cards. Download a calendar that works offline.
  1. 1Your zone
  2. 2Your plants
  3. 3Your calendar, to keep
Start building →
Monarchs · 100 raised in 2026

Egg to butterfly in about a month

How I raise them →
  1. Stage 1EggAbout 4 days

    The size of a pinhead, laid on the underside of a milkweed leaf.

  2. Stages 2 to 6CaterpillarAbout 2 weeks

    Five instars. It outgrows its skin four times, eating nothing but milkweed.

  3. Stages 7 and 8J-hang and chrysalis8 to 15 days

    Jade green with a gold band. The wings show through just before it opens.

  4. Stage 9Butterfly2 to 5 weeks

    Summer adults. The fall generation that migrates can live up to 9 months.

Front elevation Sheet A1 · NTS 4'-0" ABOUT 6'
Garden infrastructure

The arch bed

One 16-foot cattle panel, sprung into an arch with its feet 4 feet apart and pinned with rebar.

PANEL
16 FT
BASE
4'-0"
SHEETS
A1 + A2
Open the drawings →
Butterflies · 14 cards

Grow rue, get swallowtails

Every caterpillar card is matched to the host plants in my garden.

  1. RueHost plant
  2. Caterpillar10–30 days
  3. Black swallowtailPapilio polyxenes

Also eats dill, parsley, fennel, carrot, and Queen Anne's lace. When bothered, it pushes out a forked orange osmeterium that smells bad.

See all the butterflies →Raising monarchs →
Mushrooms · 4 I grow

Check the spore print

Every mushroom I grow has a look-alike to rule out. For shiitake, it's the color of the print.

ShiitakeWhite print. On hardwood logs.
Deadly galerinaRusty-brown print. Small and brown on rotting wood.
The four I grow →
Made With Peppers · From the garden to the jar

Pepper jelly from the peppers I grow

Small batches, every pepper home grown. Recipes for each jar, from a pork loin glaze to cream cheese and crackers.

Cook with the jars →