Summer Garden

Last fall we uprooted a lot of plants from our front garden to fill it with native pollinators. We had two goals. The first, of course, was to get rid of invasive species and plant things that will attract and nourish birds, bees, and butterflies. The second was to plant things that could thrive in our native soil and with our local weather. So it seems like a good idea to check in, now when our garden should be in full bloom.  Let's compare:

Last fall, we planted cardinal flower

Now, with lots more color!

Let's break it down. Starting at the leftmost edge, near our troublesome downspout, here's the view last fall:

And here it is now (the angle is a little different to highlight some of our less successful areas):

Visible here should be a few different varieties of milkweed but our "Red Butterfly" Asclepius doesn't seem to have come back, just the swamp milkweed. The American Beautyberry is also looking pretty sad:

Just some spindly twigs. We tried loosening up the earth last weekend (it was packed down, maybe due to some of the water drainage issues) and are wondering if there is simply too much sun here to grow certain types of plants. It's clear this corner still needs some work, we're just not sure exactly what.

Moving along, here's the fall view:

You can scroll back up to see the first summer picture for a good overall scene of this, but here are my favorite images to capture this section:

Coneflower (echinacea), Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia), and cardinal flowers (Lobelia cardinalis) all came back, as did some of the Russian sage. The bee balm (monarda) "Jacob Cline" came back too--about a month before the rest so it's already on the way out. 

Moving to the garden on the other side of the house, here's fall:

And here's summer. It's not particularly exciting because the deer seem to have gotten to the yellow Black-eyed Susan flowers but at least the plants themselves seem to have survived.

Then further down, we planted more Black-eyed Susans, another Beautyberry bush, and a Linder Benzoin "spicebush":

Many of the Black-eyed Susans have come back and this Beautyberry bush is looking very happy, unlike the one on the other side of the house. No little purple berries yet, but that's to be expected. It blooms in June and July and grows berries in August and September, so we're right on track.

Here's the spicebush--not particularly exciting at the moment. It's not even taller than our iris greens. But on the other hand, it is green and not wilting or anything so I'l call that a win. I do hope it gets bigger though, since a quick google search suggests that it can grow 1-2' a year and this little guy has barely budged.

Given our track record, I'd call this a success so far. One corner of the garden really seems to be struggling as is the Hawthorn tree nearby (more on that later), so maybe that side of the house just doesn't have enough...something (not sure what that something is). But the rest seems relatively happy and full of native pollinators.