Laura M Durand Elkins - Miracles in the Garden: Building a Butterfly Garden and Raising Monarch Butterflies

MIRACLES IN
THE GARDEN

Building a Butterfly Garden and Raising Monarch Butterflies

LAURA M DURAND ELKINS

Copyright 2019 Laura M Durand Elkins.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1 (866) 928-1240

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-6018-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-6019-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019904407

WestBow Press rev. date: 04/24/2019

MIRACLES IN THE GARDEN

Building A Butterfly Garden And
Raising Monarch Butterflies

Told by Laura M Durand Elkins

Lancaster, Texas

Biography

Laura Marie Durand Elkins

Lives in Lancaster, Texas

Retired EMT-Paramedic II

Owner of The Medic Gardener

I raise and release Monarch and Queen Butterflies.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to my wonderful and supportive husband Scott. You have helped me more than you will ever know. I love you.

Thank you to Paul H. for your awesome help on clearing out the ground and making this beautiful garden possible. Youre the best.

Thank you to Aaron D. for helping with the clearing out, the ground prep, and the planting of the beautiful plants in the garden. This project would not have been possible without your wonderful help. You are amazing.

Thank you to Will S. for the use of your microscope. I would have never known the amazing detail that the hand of God created without the use of this amazing device. Taking the photos and sharing them to this book was my greatest joy. You were instrumental in opening my eyes to Gods handiwork. Thank you my friend.

Thank you to Nathan E. for designing the front cover of this book. You have an amazing gift and I really appreciate you for sharing that with me on this venture.

Authors Note

Our God, the Sovereign and masterful creator of all living things both complex and beautiful did one of His most incredible creations when He designed the Monarch butterfly. Not only is this creation complex and beautiful but it also an insect that can only be explained by intelligent design due to its extraordinary life.

I love this particular butterfly because it not only brings attention to an amazing creator, but it has also baffled evolutionary scientists by what the Monarch does. The Monarch butterfly is the only long distance migrating insect. With perfection and remarkable precision that has never been figured out by scientist, the Monarch travels approximately 3000 miles against all odds from the northern US and Nova Scotia, Canada all the way down to the Michoacan Forest in Mexico to the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. There are now Monarchs that stay year round from central Florida south and the Monarchs on the West Coast that migrate to the Pacific Grove in southern California. Not all migrate to Mexico.

The Monarch Butterfly goes through four stages of development before it becomes a butterfly. No one knows why it takes four stages of life, all we know is that it happens according to Gods will, purposes and good pleasure. I believe His purpose for this magnificent creation was to show the evolutionary that this indeed can only be explained by an intelligent Creator who is Yahweh.

I raise Monarchs at my home from a Butterfly Garden I had built. While a female Monarch will lay approximately 250 to 500 eggs, only 10% will make it to becoming a butterfly due to all the predators.

It is because of these great odds that I decided to find as many Monarch eggs as possible and raise them indoors.

I have always loved the outdoors. Gardening along with butterfly and bird watching has always been a big part of my love for being outdoors. It never ceases to amaze me the wonderful and detailed work of God in the beauty of flowers and the wonderful pollinators and visitors that the flowers attract. The year 2018 was my first year to focus on butterflies and their host plants. The monarch and queen butterfly in particular sparked my great interest. These two butterflies as caterpillars are the only ones that feed on the milkweed plant leaves while in this stage. At the time I also noticed several circulating articles saying that the monarchs numbers had been declining in the past 10 years and that a nationwide effort was out to help raise the numbers back up by building pesticide-free butterfly habitats in gardens. I instantly wanted to be a part of this effort. It is with heavy heart to mention that the farmers use of pesticides and the homeowners use of weed-resistant material and herbicides are the main reason for the declining numbers of the Monarch. The common milkweed plant grows naturally in a lot of open grasslands here in the southern part of Dallas, Texas where there are several open farmlands and plains. Because of this, the monarchs and queens are everywhere in heavy numbers from late July to mid-October and its an incredible sight to see. Who wouldnt want to be part of this great effort?

I am happy to say that by the end of the season, I ended up home raising and releasing over 55 monarchs and 59 queens. Nothing brought me more pleasure than this.

Years ago, my mother, Lucy A. Scholz, planted the seed in me for the love of flowers, and I also wanted to build a butterfly and bird garden in her memory. We moved from Minneapolis, MN to Farmers Branch, Texas in 1969. It was at this home where I saw my mother explode with happiness because she finally made it to the South where she could garden till her hearts content. My mothers love for flowers always fascinated me. I never saw her more at peace and happier than when she was looking at, receiving, or planting flowers around the house. When I was a young girl I remember on several occasions picking simple flowering weeds on the way home from school to give them to my mother. She always had the biggest smile ever! Flowers brought happiness to my mom, and just the idea of putting in this garden has come with much joy and happiness of those great memories.

This book will be the beginning of a series of books that will cover the different visitors to the garden, including other butterflies and birds that visit or live in the garden. These fun stories will be about individual and named Butterflies and Birds that were either in-home raised and studied or studied in their natural habitat. I promise you will be entertained while learning about these absolutely beautiful creations God has ever designed. Writing this book has brought me many smiles and I hope it does the same to those special people who read it.