Measuring up the Gardening Year

This summer has been wetter than usual, at least until August arrived. Luckily, a native garden can cope with all kinds of weather conditions. And for dry spells we have a rain barrel that provides free water.
Every year we observe new kinds of insects in our certified wildlife habitat and we never cease to admire them. Needless to say, I find many photo objects in my own backyard. Bees - especially bumble bees - are drawn to purple coneflowers, common milkweed, Joe-pye weed, and blazing star.

Unfortunately, the milkweed did not attract any monarch butterflies this year. We had noticed fewer monarchs last year, but seeing not one of them this year is very distressing.
I plant few annuals, but have always had beautiful zinnias in our flower bed. This year, however, it has been a war of rabbits vs. me, and I'm afraid the rabbits won. I even put down a fence wrapped with landscape cloth, but it was no use. The salvias I planted in their stead are beautiful. I plan on planting them again next year.

Successes of the Gardening Year

It is time to take stock of the successes and failures of gardening year 2010. 

Annuals
The winners are: Zinnias. Even though the first growth was eaten by rabbits the zinnias made a nice comeback and are clear favorites with insects. Whether they're cabbage, eastern tiger swallowtail, black swallowtail, or monarch butterflies, or bumblebees, they make a bee line (pun intended) to the zinnias and ignore every other annual on our flower island.

Perennials
It's a tie between common milkweed/butterfly weed and Joe-pye weed. Besides the fact that milkweeds are the only host plant for monarch butterfly larvae, they are also very popular with insects. During their bloom they were literally covered with flying objects all day long.
Our Joe-pye weed (a cultivar named 'Little Joe') has grown much taller than last year. It is, in fact, taller than me. It enjoys a long blooming season and is a great draw for insects. And it doesn't look like a weed at all.

Build It and They Will Come

On the rare occasions when we venture outside in this hot, humid weather we have had numerous butterfly and insect sightings. A monarch visited a common milkweed the other day; fritillaries, eastern tiger swallowtails, and an eight-spotted forester checked out the purple coneflowers; an eastern black swallowtail landed on the black-eyed Susans; and a spicebush swallowtail gave our spicebush a once-over (could it be that it was laying its eggs in there?).
The milkweed is also very popular with bees and other insects of all sorts. Next to bloom is the Joe-pye weed, which is already beginning to open. Word is out that our cafe is open for business. One reason, though, why our backyard is so popular is because none of the other neighbors have anything but lawn and alien plants. Build it - or rather, plant it - and they will come!

Successes of the gardening year

The gardening year is winding down and it's time to take stock of the successes of our native garden. After removing our huge silver maple, we had enough space in our backyard to finally buy a serviceberry. It is now the centerpiece of our second native garden. Its bloom was very short this year (I didn't even get to photograph it because it was over so quickly) but I hope it will bloom longer in its second year. I missed the berries because I was out of town at the time. Its autumn color was beautiful--a russett red that added a beautiful shade to our fall garden.
We also purchased a Joe-pye weed that was a bee and butterfly magnet. I have the photos to prove it. Its blooms attracted bumble bees into October. Luckily, we got a dwarf variety. They can get taller than a man in the wild.
Our zinnias recovered after the first shoots were eaten by rabbits. With a later bloom, they provided color until the first frost killed them.
Next time I will blog about the failures of our gardening year. Luckily, there weren't many.