Pollinator Garden Update

In just three months, our new pollinator garden has gone from a new planting to a beautiful flowering pollinator food source! The Joe Pye Weed and Purple Coneflower that were given to us have become well established and are in full bloom. Additionally, the blanket flower we grew from seed is growing well and flowering. Even the Rue plant has more than tripled in size since it was planted. Check out the before and after pictures below to see the change in just 3 short months.

Planted May 9th

Blooming August 4th

We are so pleased with how this garden in coming along and we are already planning how we can improve this pollinator garden for next year! The honeybees are enjoying the coneflowers. But Monarch and Swallowtail Butterflies have been visiting all the flowers for food while they visit neighboring plantings to lay eggs on the Milkweed, Dill, Fennel, and parsley that we have established for the caterpillar stages.

It has been fun to watch this pollinator garden grow and become established in just the three short months. Now, we visit the garden to see what pollinator friends are visiting us and enjoy the beauty of the flowers. We love how the plants have doubled or tripled in size and have begun filling in the flower bed creating  a uniform garden. Next year we are excited to add to this garden to increase the size a bit, add a bit more diversity and to see what new pollinators we might find visiting our garden.

Additionally, in July of 2022, the Monarch Butterfly has been added to the Endangered Species List. We are proud to be able to do our part to provide habitat for this species. Our Milkweed meadow is visited by Monarch daily to lay eggs, very hungry caterpillars that are busy crunching and munching away as they grow, plus we find a few cocoons hanging around for us to admire. Here is an update on the milkweed patch and the Monarchs: