Native Pollinator Garden Updates – 8.12.2020
It seems this summer has been a never-ending heatwave, which is interesting considering spring got off to a late start and May was actually way colder than average. The native plants in my garden have responded to the high temperatures by spreading out, and in some cases, going to seed sooner. All my Baptisia Australis plants formed pods many months ago! This video of the garden was taken on August 3rd:
Tropical Storm Isaias passed through my area the following day and while there were strong winds, the garden wasn’t badly affected and we didn’t lose power. I lost a few Pokeberry branches and the Butterfly Weed flowers were shaken off a bit more (they got a thrashing during a previous storm and have been without flowers for a while), but everything, including taller plants like the Joe Pye Weed and all the Common Milkweed, were largely unscathed. This is a testament to the strength and resilience of native plants because my backyard veggie garden sustained way more damage, with uprooted tomato plants and cucumber plants that were left shriveled under a layer of salt deposited by the storm. The native plants didn’t miss a beat and are still going strong despite not being watered much (if at all!). I have been watering the Black Eyed Susans here and there because they were showing signs of distress last month and were beginning to shrivel, but even they are as radiant as ever after the storm.
On a sad note, I still haven’t seen many insects int he garden. I’ve seen a few Monarch butterflies and even saw two butterflies stuck together 😉, so I was hoping for lots of eggs and caterpillars this season, but I haven’t seen any and there are no signs of life on the milkweed besides the usual milkweed beetles and wasps. I’m hoping to see at least one Monarch caterpillar this year and I continue to be horrified at the fact that I haven’t seen many bees,butterflies, ladybugs, fireflies, praying mantises or grasshoppers (which really give me the willies but I know they are part of the food web so I tolerate them). It seems to me that the insect apocalypse that experts have been warning about has finally arrived although I recently read an article stating that this alarming insect decline is not happening in the USA and that most of the data about that is from Europe. I still can’t help but notice the lack of bugs this year and it is alarming to me.
Despite the decline, I have observed many bumblebees and they’ve been hard at work in my veggie garden hanging around the Giant Anise Hyssop plant which is about 4 feet tall now! I highly recommend this plant near a vegetable garden because it draws the bumbles out and gets your veggie plants pollinated (video above). I’ve also observed honeybees on my sunflowers and I’ve wondered where their hive is located. Is one of my neighbors secretly a beekeeper?
Negative news: the garden has been overrun with crabgrass and other fast growing grasses, which I haven’t been on top of due to the hot weather. Also, I’m still in a bad romance with the Rose of Sharon which is a non-native invasive plant but so pretty and it really adds a cottage-y feel to my front garden. I had planned to cut it down next spring, but I’m still thinking about it.
Well, that’s what’s been going on in my garden lately. Follow me on Instagram (right sidebar) and Facebook to see regular updates on my gardens and my projects.
