Category Archives: pollinators

The Lot Levels Up

education, loki bed, native plants, pollinators, rambling thoughts, the Lot

As I’ve wrote (preached?) about multiple times, the Lot is being arranged, planted, designed, arranged again for more than The Other Half’s and my benefit. I enjoy spending time in the garden and will not turn down garden compliments from anyone willing to shower them upon me. But as I’ve continued to learn about gardening, I’m wanting more and more to develop a tiny ecosystem on the Lot to support a whole variety of critters.

Enter Swamp Milkweed

In 2014 a handful of native plants were integrated into the assortment of flora on the Lot. One of these plants was Asclepias incarnata or Swamp Milkweed. This perennial plant likes full sun, though it can tolerate a bit of shade. It’s happiest in medium to wet soil.  When you see it in The Wilds, it often is near wetlands. It has a tall, slender silhouette growing 4 to 5′ that does not require staking. Swamp Milkweed can be grown in USDA hardiness zones 3a-8b. Here is a shot of the plant in bloom on the Lot during July of 2015.

Monarch Nursery

Swamp milkweed is also known to attract monarch butterflies, not only for a nectar source but also as a host plant for their young. Monarchs will lay eggs on the plant, the eggs hatch, and voila there is a buffet awaiting the hungry, hungry caterpillar.

I have waited SO long for what happened today. Mom G and I had returned from a day wandering a beautiful lavender labyrinth and herb garden and then participating in retail therapy at a great nursery. I was placing an anise hysop near the swamp milkweed because I plan on expanding the bed and making it a pollinator patch. I was moving to straighten up again when I came eye to eye with this little one.

The Other Half has joked my squeals of delight (in regards to plants and kittens) reach beyond the audio range of the human ear. This was one of those times. I literally was dancing in place and motioning Mom G over to take a look. On the swamp milkweed was the first monarch caterpillar I have ever noticed on the Lot.

Plant It and They Will Come?

There are many, many guides online that will coach you through which plants to select for monarchs. However, your best bet is to get your facts from a university extensions page or an entomology department. Here is a monarch plant guide from the Michigan State University Extension office.

Also, I’ve read numerous times for any pollinator garden, larger stands of the plant have a better chance of attracting that pollinator you desire. In the front, South bed I noticed I have the most pollinators when the large stand of purple coneflowers is blooming. As mentioned above, I’m installing a stand of plants this year that will hopefully serve as a big grocery store signal for bees and butterflies. I’ll keep notes on its progress.

Oh, and then there’s patience. ARGH.

Racing To Catch Up

pollinators, spring cleanup, the Horror!, the Lot

The Other Half and I were fortunate to take an over 2 week trip to the UK toward the end of May this year. It was wonderful. But now I have been playing catch-up on the Lot ever since!

Memorial Day is a book end to the bulk of the growing season here in our corner of Zone 6a. It is often the long, holiday weekend in which I attempt to have everything in the ground, containers and baskets complete, warm season veggies planted, etc. Well, this season my Memorial weekend push has lasted about 4-5 weeks.

Today while I was working I had a visitor at the common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca). The monarchs are back!

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – May 2016

alley bed, backyard bed, bloom day, fence bed, gate bed, loki bed, perennials, pollinators, spring

A bright and sunny albeit wind-chilled day marks this season’s Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day. Spring has been wonderful on the Lot this year with transplants having made it through the winter, insects already busily buzzing about, and a few new feathered friends visiting the garden.

Currently the South bed is empty of blooms, the tulips having recently passed. The sweet william in the bed has not quite opened yet. Only a bit of carpet phlox is left behind in the Southwest bed. However, on the East side of the Lot, a pretty vignette has brightened up the corner of the house near the gate.

May Flowers in Gate Bed

The labrador violets are still going, now joined by the purple spear-shaped blooms of bugleweed (Ajuga x ‘Chocolate Chip’). The rock foil (Saxifraga) is blooming like the phlox, but this ground-hugging perennial holds its clusters of white flowers above its mat of foliage. Also blooming in the bottom left of the photo is the pasque flower (Anemone patens). Here is a close-up of the flowers.

Pasque Flower

Next are the white blooms of the foam flower, or Tiarella, accompanied by the neighbor’s escapee bluebells.

Blooms in Fence Bed

Further down the fence, the cranesbill has seeded into the backyard from the two plants near the compost bin. Tucked around the Lot everywhere are forget-me-nots.

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Sharing the bed with the new cranesbill plant are the dwarf iris. I did some major shuffling around of this plant last season when I removed some tickseed. I’m glad to see the iris have seemed to adjust well.

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And here’s a busy bee on one of the irises.

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The brunnera is in bloom…

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…as well as the Jack in the Pulpit. Jack invited along some friends this year.

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The strawberries which ducked under the fence from the westside neighbor are blooming.

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And the same bed brings our second year of blooms from the Geum triflorum ‘Prairie Smoke.’

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Last season I divided the solomon’s seal (Polygonatum odoratum Variegatum) in Loki’s bed. The plants seemed to have weathered the winter well and are currently blooming.

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Here is the Mt Airy Fothergilla, looking quite stunning in the late afternoon light.

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The lilac is blooming near the alley bed.

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The Other Half is not the only one who enjoys sticking his nose in the lilacs.

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And the last Bloom Day photo is a patch of violas we are not responsible for planting last season, but have been enjoying nonetheless. The violas are an annual in our Zone 6a garden, but reseed for the following season. I’ve let the generations of the little plants wander about the garden for several years now. The recent cold snaps (we had a frost last night) do not bother them.

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That’s all for the Lot this month. Be sure to visit May Dreams Gardens for links to many other May blooms.