Bee-utiful Gardens - part 1 - Flowers
Spring is here, summer is on its way, and it is time to get out into the yard. After a month's worth of weekends filled with hard work, we are done!
We are trying to be more environmentally conscious and make better, long-term choices for the environment (and, coincidentally, our wallets), so we are doing some new things.
This year, we have added three new flower beds to our yard. Last year, in one of the raised beds on our deck, we threw some extra petunias into a half-empty box. (Half empty because the herbs I'd planted died.) The petunias grew very well and erupted into massive bunches of bright red blooms. So bright, in fact, that they attracted hummingbirds! Needless to say, we wanted to repeat that phenomenon.
We also wanted to attract more pollinators, and the easiest way to do that is with colour. We're hoping that bright yellow in the vegetable gardens does the trick. We're also planting a lot more flowers in other areas.
We're starting at the front doors. Please excuse the Tim Hortons cups - we started these zinnias from seed and they are still rather spindly. We don't know what colour they will be because it was a variety pack of seeds.
Next we added two garden boxes out front. We filled them with purchased petunias, jonny jump-ups, and another plant I can't remember that's scarlet with white-edged petals. From seed, we planted zinnias, lavateras, and calendulas. None of these varieties are perennials; we wanted to see how the location of the boxes worked first. Eventually we plan to put river rock down around the base of the boxes.
Our first front garden is almost entirely perennials. We just added a couple of johnny jump-ups to the corner for some colour. We have three varieties of hostas, two rose bushes, some tulips that have never bloomed and will be pulled this fall, and a bunch of lilies that Ross does very successfully.
Our other front garden is all new. Last year we had a massive patch of day lilies in it that only produced a few blooms and then threw in a few annuals for colour. We dug them all out in the fall. This year we planted a perennial garden. The hydrangea in the middle is not native to Manitoba, but with care should last us for years. Then we went to the Living Prairie Museum and invested in four types of native prairie plants. We bought two New England Asters, two Blue Vervains, one Fireweed, and three Black-Eyed Susans. We didn't realize this when we bought them, but all the plants in the garden range from two feet to five feet tall! This garden will be set for years. We are also slowly splitting the hostas in the other bed to make a border for this perennial bed.
Then back to the backyard, where we planted a full planter full of petunias this year. Rather than all red like last year, we decided to do a variety of colours.
We also built a new flowerbed out of scrap wood. We filled it with the leftover petunias, the last zinnia, the only rudbeckia that sprouted from seed, and two packets of seed flowers - one was California poppy (multicoloured), and the other an Assorted Wildflower mix. If this doesn't draw the bees and butterflies, nothing will!
That's it for the flowers. Now on to the vegetables!