Region
Southern MN
City
Faribault
Project Type(s)
Pocket Planting
Template(s) Used
None
Site Conditions
Part Sun
Gardener Name
Elizabeth Hartman
Gardener Comments
My pocket planting was added to an existing native garden. It gets extended every year!! I learned that grasses and sedges are necessary native garden components. I continue to read about and try new kinds, some more successfully than others. The best advice about adding native plants to our yards and gardens was on a Blue thumb Facebook posting. “Your pollinator planting doesn’t have to be perfect!!” My yard is a much healthier and welcoming place for pollinators and other wildlife since I transitioned to native plants and more eco friendly gardening practices. Challenges have been using plants like ironweed and joe pye weed and partridge pea that can be aggressive but are wonderful resources for pollinators. I will deadhead the ironweed in the Lawns to Legumes garden. Spent lots of hours this summer pulling out young plants.
I love walking around my yard first thing in the morning to see what’s blooming and to discover what pollinators and other insects are visiting my gardens. I always have my smartphone with me to take pictures. These pictures are an invaluable resource when I want to see when something bloomed the previous year, or when I spotted my first monarch of the season.
Wildlife Observed
This will be my 4th year of seeing the Rusty-patched bumble bee in my yard. Last year I photographed several Rusty-patched gynes. (iNaturalist ID) I had a lot of sightings last year of males and females (Rusty-patched) all over my yard from mid-July on. This year I was worried that I wasn’t seeing any, but on August 14 and the 15th, I spotted one on the Joe Pye Weed in the Lawns to Legumes. garden. In general, I haven’t seen as many different kinds of native bees as usual. Very few monarchs and swallowtails and only a couple of caterpillars. Lots of caterpillars on the pussytoes and pearly everlasting.
