Gardening in May: Unruly Flowers Rule and Planned Plantings

I love having beautiful wild flowering perennials (aka “weeds”) growing in my yard. I let them be for the bees and butterflies. They’re an important unplanned part of my planned pollinator garden and grounds. If you are a lazy gardener nothing could be more welcomed, because you don’t have to water or fuss with them. If you’re cutting back on expenses they are free. They also rarely disappoint the way some perennials can, like my Azalea and Forsythia that only bloomed on the bottom this spring due to temperature extremes the past few months. So with that abundance in mind, it’s been a blast buying and planting things to add to it all!

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A Secret Pollinator Garden: Progress and Process

A year ago this month Wayne rebuilt one of our raised garden beds and this is what our backyard looked like:

I suddenly had a vision of a little English-inspired pollinator garden behind our house that would attract hummingbirds, hummingbird moths, butterflies and more bees then we already have. We don’t “treat” our yard with herbicides or pesticides, so wild strawberry thrives behind our house. Some see this as a detriment. Besides creating a low-maintenance green carpet, bees love the blossoms. The tiny little fruits are enjoyed by the birds and wildlife. Wayne loves that it requires little mowing. But I rarely saw hummingbirds, just a half-dozen butterflies and never a hummingbird moth in our yard. It was time to create a new reality in my own backyard!

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