This garden gets full sun most of the day and the butterflies have been making the most of it.
early_bloomer
My Butterfly/Cottage Garden
Ooooh! Oooooh! Earlybloomer! What a wonderful Butterfly garden!
Please tell us what butterflies have been visiting and which flowers are the most popular!?
Beautiful Garden Early Bloomer. That is what I want mine to look like but I don't think it ever will. Great job.
Leslie
John - Your butterfly garden is gorgeous! Yes! Do tell what butterflies you get and what they like to nectar from. Looks like a natural butterfly garden. I'd love to have an area in my yard look like yours! Absolutely lovely! Looks like it would attract humans too! :-)
Early)Bloomer,
That is exactly what I'm shooting for as I slowly eradicate the lawn. Thanks for sharing. My husband will be glad to see it. Right now it just looks like a mess of plants.
Maggie
EB, that is so pretty!!! Looks like your yard is a bf magnet, for sure!
That is gorgeous! That looks like a photo in a gardening magazine. And I too would love to hear what's been planted here! :)
It looks better than the pictures in the magazines I've seen lately, EB. How do you get all those plants to stand stright up is what I want to know. Oh, you said they all get full full sun, so maybe that's it. I am destined to have to stake everything in my garden, I guess. :(
Suzy
Now that's a pretty butterfly garden. : )
~Lucy
Very nice!
Please share what plants you have in your garden.
Karen in Austin, TX
Thanks for the positive comments. You are all too kind.
Karen and junebug.........I went out and took a census since there was no way I would remember everything I've planted there the past 2 years.
In spring I have the usual daffodils, tulips and allium. The rest of the year in no particular order I have:
Daisies.........A couple of varieties
Speedwell
Cosmos
Cleome
Bee Balm
Coreopsis
Shirly Poppies
Timthonia Torch Sunflowers
Daylilys........8 or 10 varieties
Lillium
Yellow Coneflowers
Purple Coneflowers
Geraniums........a couple varieties
Butterfly Weed
Valerian
Coral Bells
Sweet Peas
Sea Holly
Larkspur
Red Hot Pokers
Hibiscus....... both the shrub and the big dinner plate sized ones
Butterfly Bush
Yarrow
Blazing Star
Climbing Rose
Globe Thistle
Husker Red
Spiderwort
Crocosmia
Mullein
Iris.......3 or 4 varieties
I also have a couple of shrubs with yellow flowers I can't recall the name of right now and a lot of lupine and foxglove plants that will bloom next year.
Tabasco.......Over the season I will have most of the butterflies native to this area in the garden at one time or another, depending on what is blooming. Right now the smaller butterflies, the skippers, pearl crescents and coppers love the Valerian. (the tall white flowers in the rear of the photo) In addition to attracting a lot of butterflies, it has a wonderful aroma. There are also a lot of Red Admiral and white cabbage butterflies visiting now along with a few sphinx moths.
early_bloomer
Oops! Accidentally posted twice:(
This message was edited Jul 6, 2007 4:48 PM
Very interesting about the Valerian (Garden Heliotrope) I just saw it in another garden this week and it was so pretty and butterflies were loving it.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/855/
I rarely see it mentioned on butterfly sites, though. Anyway, you mentioned the 'aroma' and I just wanted to say that one seed site said the valerian 'aroma' was like 'stale perspiration'! I wonder how many seeds they sold?!!
I see you have 'butterfly weed' in your garden--do you have other asclepias varieties for the August monarchs, too?
Thank you so much Early Bloomer!
I love the new photo you are sharing with us.
May I ask how much property you have. It looks wonderful.
Karen in Austin living on a urban lot ... )-:
tabasco........Stale perspiration huh? I don't think mine smells like that at all. The scent was very noticeable in the garden when it was blooming but didn't seem overpowering or unpleasant though. It kind of reminds me of Ivory soap. The milkweed is the only asclepias variety I have now. There are some milkweed plants growing along the fence at the end of the bed but I've never checked to see exactly what it is. It's a tall variety that gets white flowers. I've let it spread into the yard a bit this year.
Karen........I have 4 acres here on the edge of town. More then half is wooded and is the source of the locust trees for my split-rail fence and the flat rocks I use to border my beds. The back yard has a small orchard with about a dozen trees--mostly apple.
I left a couple of plants off of the list. Russian sage and Cup plant. I bought the Cup plant at a garden club sale last year and had no idea what it was. It's in the right front corner of the bed and needs moved this fall. It's about 8' tall and still growing. :( You can see part of it on the far left in the first photo I posted in this thread. It's a good thing I have plenty of space.
early_bloomer
regarding the Cup Plant -- I grew some by seed this year and am hoping for the best.
In my area, it is considered a "dry prairie plant/wildflower"
here's a link
http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/cupplantx.htm
Early Bloomer-
What a lovely garden- nicer than a lot I've seen in botanical gardens lately! How did you plan you garden? I really like the composition and the stone.
Thank so much for sharing.
Jenny
Jenny.......... I built this garden in late summer/fall of '05 so it is 2 years old. The whole area was lawn at the time. I laid out the shape I wanted, and used a rototiller on the area. I posted some construction photos on DG but can't find the thread so I'll repost a few of them.
Photo: This shows the shape of the bed. I hauled the rocks down from the creek at the back of my property.
early_bloomer
This photo shows the stone pathway and the arbor.
early_bloomer
I started planting in late summer/ fall of '05.
early_bloomer
By the next summer it looked like this.
early_bloomer
All I can say is ....... LOVELY!!! That's really cool that you used materials found on or near your property! Nothing wasted. Everything found a purpose! So are you planning to expand your garden into more of the yard or are you done?
LOL, Becky! That was my first though when I saw that last photo with all the expansion space.
EB, Did I hear somebody call you JOHN?
Suzy
Early Bloomer-
What a wonderful undertaking! I'm jealous of your zone!!!
Adrienne
EB, you've done an excellent job of combining plant textures! I've enjoyed viewing your gardens. You should make an album or a slide show of your gardens. It should would help us new gardeners with ideas on plant combinations.
Becky.........I'm always thinking about expanding and making new beds. Right now I have 3 or 4 spots in mind. I hope to do at least one of them this year.
Suzy..........Yep!
Adrienne...........I bet you would not be quite so jealous of this zone in the middle of January :)
Cordele.........You are so kind.
early_bloomer
This message was edited Jul 8, 2007 2:48 PM