Eastern Black Swallowtail butterflies come here every day. Several times a day. Here, is my new homes, of 3 months, in North Macon, Georgia.

The back garden is large, and we’ve already added 3 native Black Cherry trees, their favorite hostplant. We had tree removal men take out alot of trees, to open up the center of the back garden, open it to some sun. One of the stumps (cut to ground-level) has now sprouted (well, re-sprouted) and that late winter cut tree, bare of leaves, is sending up Tulip Poplar sprouts. Tulip Poplar is the Eastern Tiger’s other hostplant.

Totally excited we are, for by next year, our 3 Black Cherry trees should grow from their present 2 feet to 4 feet in height, and just maybe that’s enough for 1, 2 or all 3 of them to host Eastern Tiger eggs. The Tulip Poplar (Tuliptree) sprouts won’t be removed, and they too many beckon Tigers.

We don’t do the self-defeating garden mistakes. We don’t use chemicals (zero), don’t mist for mosquitoes . . . we don’t use chemicals at all. It looks like our neighbors don’t hire mosquitoes spray companies, so we will have little worry that neighboring poison sprays will drift over to us.

We will be 101% expectant in 2021, with garden activity beginning not in late April as it used to in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (700 miles north of here), rather here in middle Georgia Spring 2021 will begin in . . . the first week of February! Yippee!

Jeff

N.B., This hunk of a male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail was seen in the Butterflies & Blooms Briar Patch Habitat in Eatonton, Georgia, very, very early on a sunny morning, when he was prepping his wings