TEXAS BUTTERFLY RANCH

Physically, the Texas Butterfly Ranch encompasses the geographic area around Austin, San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country-the famous "Texas Funnel" through which all monarch butterflies east of the Rocky Mountains pass during their spectacular fall migration. It includes an amazing pollinator garden in downtown San Antonio, a place where I cultivate native plants and nonnative edibles, collect the eggs and caterpillars of monarchs and other butterflies, manage a bee hive, and pot plants in my Mariposario, a stacked rock gardening shed. It also encompasses a wildlife-riddled stretch of the Llano River in the Texas Hill Country.