Tour a New Pollinator Garden
What does a habitat garden look like in its first years? Read on to take a virtual stroll through my pollinator and habitat garden in June.
Plus get the BEST tip ever for creating a garden for wildlife that reduces weeding AND helps pollinators!
Let’s take a scroll through the gardens friends…
There is so much to see in our gardens in early June
Here at the farm there are native roses, Wild Bergamot, and even the Wild Blue Indigo in bloom.
And there seem to be more insects than ever before!
Tiger Swallowtail butterflies, huge dragonflies, small native bees and bumblebees have been busy visiting the flowers.
Why are there MORE pollinators & wildlife in my garden this year? With a tight budget I just
planted smaller & younger native plants in drifts of 3 or more.
selected native plants that would grow in the soil & light that I already had (very sandy & full sun)
Added simple water features like terra cotta saucers and shelters like up turned pots.
Stuck sticks and stick-teepees around the garden as bird perches
Threw together 2 small brush piles & only do full area mows in June thru early September
Now in its 2nd full year my garden is A BUZZ with pollinators and birds!
All this activity has made me even more determined to take more photos of my pollinator gardens and the wildlife that call our farm home.
But taking photos of bugs & birds on the wing is harder than you’d think!
It’s more than just how incredibly fast they are.
A soft breeze moving a plant, predators like hummingbirds & dragonflies on the wing plus all the ‘operator trouble’ on my end…
All this makes taking a picture of a bee on a flower a great challenge!
Yet, trying to photograph busy pollinators is so much fun to practice!
My favorite times are early mornings & evenings. But hiding in the shade in the afternoon by the Wild Bergamot waiting to photograph a pollinator has been fun too. (Lemonade or iced tea makes this a great “time out” too!)
There’s lots of places to ‘try’ to get photos of pollinators & birds in a habitat garden and on local nature trails.
If you haven’t tried this fun hobby give it a go. It’s fun and there’s always something new!
Early June in my habitat garden is a wonder.
Thanks to a mass planting of smaller native perennials in September I can sit back and watch the gardens BLOOM!
Sweet pinks & the promise of more blooms to come this Summer & Autumn
Even my old bike frame is bedazzled with a lots Calico Penstemons.
These penstemons were 3 quart-size plants placed in a cluster last September.
In Spring I spend lots of time watching the show from my vintage chairs. Watching small native bees pollinate them is a marvelous source of delight!
Doesn’t the old bike look pretty waiting for the Common Milkweed & Downy Sunflowers to bloom?
(Just because you grow for pollinators doesn’t mean you can’t add some whimsy to your garden! Check out these ideas for vignettes & whimsy HERE)
Speaking of Milkweed…
Have you seen Common Milkweed growing in your garden or in the wild?
Here at Lazy Dirt Wildflower Farm we let Common Milkweed grow where ever it darn well wants to.
In June it’s lovely to see Common Milkweed’s tall stalks develop flower buds. Those fragrant lusters will be in bloom in no time at all.
If you have a milkweed patch or access to a field to gaze at some wild Common Milkweed, be sure to take a closer look at those blooms!
A patch or field with Common Milkweed is a great place to spy on pollinators and hummingbirds.
And let’s face it the sweet scent of all those tiny flowers isn’t too bad either!
** REMEMBER the Xerces Society urges us all to KEEP MONARCHS WILD . LEAVE EGGS, CATERPILLARS OR CHRYSALIS WHERE THEY ARE~ WILD & FREE! **
Elsewhere in the garden…
In early June, a garden of mostly native plants may look like not much is happening…
But friend, let’s keep in mind what most pollinators need now is GREEN FOLIAGE for hiding from predators and to eat during their larvae stage.
Plus all that greenery is GROWTH for Summer blooms too!
Love all that green foliage
I took a peek in one of my Rudbeckia patches. This patch is right next to some Golden Alexander (Zizia aurea) which just finished it’s early Spring blooms of gold.
All that foliage & blooms must have entice butterflies & moths to lay eggs in this perfect shelter of green leaves.
How do I know?
Because my peek showed I had a guest caterpillar creating hiding places with the leaves. No idea what species but they sure seem happy! Just look at all that scat!
A great reminder that everybody eats in a habitat garden!
Waiting for the next act in the garden
Thanks to the late Spring blooms of native plants like Golden Alexander, waiting for the Summer flowers like Echinacea purpumarea, Monarda didyma & Rudbeckia triloba isn’t so hard.
Late May thru early June, native plants like Calico Penstemons, Golden Alexander and Carolina Rose are center stage. These and many other Spring blooming native plants feed pollinators and birds during the busy Spring days of breeding season.
How did we get these to bloom so soon?
I planted the majority of my plants in early to mid-September last year.
With the exception of the Carolina Rose, all the rest were 1 year old plants planted in drifts of 3 or more small plants.
It’s one of the easiest garden tricks in the book: FALL IS FOR PLANTING!
But why?
WARM SOILS & AUTUMN RAINS
All the plants in this photo were small quarts or 1 year old plants. Last September, I planted in drifts of 3-5 of each species to grow roots thru early Spring. No weeds & easy for pollinators to find & enjoy as nesting sites and food sources.
After a Summer of heat, soils are warm and then hydrated by Autumn rains. Then a blanket of leaves falls to put the garden to bed for Winter. It’s the perfect set up for healthy plants in Spring!
Planting early Autumn give perennials and hardy annuals time to establish roots before the cold days of Winter. Once soil temps get colder, the plants enter dormancy. Then, in very early Spring, they awaken and began to grow even more roots. By May they are set to GROW!
It’s a jump start on Spring growing and blooming!
The best part? All the work is all done in Fall so in April thru June all you have to do is sip tea and watch all the wildlife action in your habitat garden!
Photo Credit: Our gardening pal Sue D.
As we move into Summer…
I hope this post helped you see the ‘in-between’ weeks from a new perspective, to enjoy EVERY stage of your habitat garden. After all the pollinators and other wildlife sure are!
Perhaps you are finding that your garden has longer gaps than just a week or two.
If that’s the case, please CONTACT ME for suggestions on creating a habitat garden with food & shelter across all 4 seasons!
