Pollinator Friendly Garden

I am a member of a garden club and we had a speaker who was promoting certifying your garden as pollinator friendly.  This is through Penn State Master Gardeners here in Pennsylvania.  I jumped right on that bandwagon.  I would like very much to be that and I meet all the requirements already!  So with this post I would like to adding pictures of some of the plants and details that I am using for this certification.

This is Monarda, Bergamont, or Bee Balm.  The purple is referred to as "wild" and the second picture is the red variety.  They look the same but the red is taller with larger flowers. 

The Viola or Violets are a natural flower and also are a caterpillar food source.   They provide for Frittilary butterflies.

This butterfly is a type of Fritillary but this is not the plant from above.

Water sources can be found in multiple bird baths as well as the drinking containers for the larger animals that live here.

Here are some pictures of pollinators that I have taken here on the property.  Enjoy!

Foxglove

The foxglove are blooming today.  Well, they have been for a short time.  It's a fun plant that has soft leaves and is only around for 2 years.  The first year it is just the plant and the second year it blooms and throws it seeds.  Fortunately, we have alternating blooms so every year we get to see them and every year more get planted naturally. 

Notice the bees in the above picture :)

So many whites...
And I forgot to mention the flower spikes are often 3 - 4 ft. tall.

Azaleas

I will start out with Azaleas.  They can look somewhat sparse before they are really settled in to their living space.  There are several colors in our gardens and their bloom times vary but are close to being the same. 

Always first is the purple.  Notice it has different leaves than the other colors.  They are more like the rhododendron's leaves.

 

 

Followed by the pink ...

and white which opens about the same time.

And my favorite, the orange.  I see other places that this is a dark orange and there is a lighter one also.  I was surprised by the wavy edges.

Rhododendrons

Around here Rhododendrons are everywhere.  It only took us several years to realize that we needed to have some too.  We moved a few big ones from other yards and then bought a few smaller ones.  It seems like the pink blooms first but only a few days ahead of the purple and finally the white join in.  Some day we will have red too, as for now our only red rhododendron is a foot tall with no flowers.

They do seem similar in color but not when they are just budding.

Somehow we ended up with 2 different whites, not that I'm complaining, it's a nice accident.

The largest of these is slightly taller than I am so just over 5ft.  They grow much larger and much wider than ours are at this point.  We enjoy seeing them through out the winter as they keep their leaves where other plants of ours are only sticks.  They do like a more acidic soil so we do amend it from time to time.   Other than that we just enjoy the lovely spring flowers!

Loving the Leaves

Today's post is about Hosta!  There are so many varieties available it's mind boggling, some say 40+.  They vary in size, shape, and color.  Here are the varieties that call our gardens home:


Whites

Yellows

Green, this one has larger leaves than the rest.

Here is my helper, Osama.  He's a good pig.

Garden Overview

  Above is one of the first gardens that we put in when we decided to become gardeners.  It is a strip in the back yard that started out with a 3 almost dead bushes we bought at an end of the year sale.  We have added to this garden since as well as adding other gardens to our property.

This garden we created in order to not have to mow over these trees big roots that were on the serface.  We added hosta, and azalea that we rescued from a shaded woods and nice statue/bird baths.  You can see some alpaca in the background and a row of small trees heading of to the left.

This was taken through a window and is still another garden.  Winter gives everything such a different life.  We enjoy it but are always glad to see everything alive and well in the summer. 

Pierus, Lily of the valley bush






Columbine





Foxglove

Tulips, Bulb, April





Crocus, Bulb, early April




Snow Bells, early April




Forsythia, April





Daffodils, Bulb, April

Whirligig




Coreopsis





Purple Blazing Star (Liatris)




Euronymos