The gardens now need to be replanted so this weekend Jenny and I went to work. First up, we concentrated on the 2 front gardens. Last year we had 26 species of butterflies visit the yard so I am hoping to beat that number this year.
Lots of perennials are coming up plus we have 2 Lantanas that are coming back for the 3rd summer. Each year those 2 Lantana plants have gotten bigger. The Canna's are coming back which is great. It is recommended you removed the bulbs every year in the late fall and overwintered in peat in the garage. I have 2 large tubs of bulbs from 2 areas where I had planted them last summer and did remove them after Hurricaine Sandy. I left 80% of them in the ground to see whether they would overwinter in the ground. I guess since we had a fairly mild winter I was lucky. Now I'll be able to pass along extra bulbs to other friends who garden. We have added Lantana to both the front and back gardens as they are great butterfly attractors. I have parsley and dill coming back which are host plants for Eastern Black Swallowtails. I have common, swamp and some tropical milkweed that is regrowing plus some new milkweed plants that I have yet to get into the ground. The winds have been pretty stiff the past few days so I didn't want to put the tender plants out yet. The milkweed is host to Monarch butterflies. Plus we have 1 returning and 3 new Partridge Pea plants that is host for the Cloudless Sulphur butterfly.
Above is the center back garden where we actually planted 2 weekends ago. It is coming along nicely.
Here is the berm we built using 55-60 cubic yards of terragro. The dead branches are snags for the birds. The last picture shows where the snags have been installed and that we have gotten all of the perennials in the ground.
The gardens now need to be replanted so this weekend Jenny and I went to work. First up, we concentrated on the 2 front gardens. Last year we had 26 species of butterflies visit the yard so I am hoping to beat that number this year.
Lots of perennials are coming up plus we have 2 Lantanas that are coming back for the 3rd summer. Each year those 2 Lantana plants have gotten bigger. The Canna's are coming back which is great. It is recommended you removed the bulbs every year in the late fall and overwintered in peat in the garage. I have 2 large tubs of bulbs from 2 areas where I had planted them last summer and did remove them after Hurricaine Sandy. I left 80% of them in the ground to see whether they would overwinter in the ground. I guess since we had a fairly mild winter I was lucky. Now I'll be able to pass along extra bulbs to other friends who garden. We have added Lantana to both the front and back gardens as they are great butterfly attractors. I have parsley and dill coming back which are host plants for Eastern Black Swallowtails. I have common, swamp and some tropical milkweed that is regrowing plus some new milkweed plants that I have yet to get into the ground. The winds have been pretty stiff the past few days so I didn't want to put the tender plants out yet. The milkweed is host to Monarch butterflies. Plus we have 1 returning and 3 new Partridge Pea plants that is host for the Cloudless Sulphur butterfly.
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