I wanted to do a post on each of the named garden beds and areas I have established over the years. When we moved to this house in 2019, there were NO planting areas established anywhere. No shrubs around the house. No flower beds in front. Nothing. The first area I started working on is what is now the Pollinator Garden, though the first couple of years, I just referred to it as ‘my large flower bed.’ It wasn’t until 2022 when I started gearing it exclusively towards pollinators.
This is what the area looked like in 2019 before we had all the tree work done.
After the tree work, and no plans at the time (Aug 2019) to do anything with this area:
The first winter we were here, it was just a place to temporarily store some of my other potted plants.
The following year, I decided to make a large flower bed in this area. I used landscape timbers for the back and side and retaining wall blocks for the front portion. And then I had a local landscape company deliver garden soil.
Here are a couple of pictures from that summer.
A few pictures from summer 2021.
2022 – the year it officially became the pollinator garden
2023 – I really felt like this garden bed could do more. I looked at it and still saw too many empty spots where plants didn’t thrive or fill in like I had hoped. Some things didn’t seem to do well. In May, I finally did a soil test and realized why! Extremely deficient in nitrogen. The pH was 5.08, so way too acidic. Also deficient in potassium, sulfur, and boron. Excessive amounts of phosphorus, calcium, iron, and zinc. The main things were the deficiencies and the pH. A picture of the pollinator garden in June 2023:
I am terrible about fertilizing diligently though. A lot of life stuff got in the way this year, so a good portion of what I had planned to plant in my pollinator garden was sold super cheap at a plant sale, and I ‘took a break’ from gardening. Except for the every-other-day watering required due to drought this year. These 2 pictures were early May.
Mid-July, I did manage to clean up the bed, pull all the weeds, prune/deadhead the perennials, and add amendments around the existing plants.
I feel this has made a HUGE difference! Also, if it weren’t for the prolific self-sowers like celosia, hummingbird sage (salvia), wishbone flowers, and vinca, it would look quite bare this year. This was last month:
The already-here-when-we-moved passionflower vine on the far right acts as a divider between the pollinator garden and the Oak Garden. Very fitting since it is the gulf fritillary caterpillar’s only food source. I’m hoping 2025 is going to be the year the pollinator garden truly shines!
Here is a list of the current perennials I have planted in the pollinator garden as of Sept 2024.
- Agastache (hummingbird mint) – Honey Bee White
- Anise Hyssop
- Bee Balm (in the galvanized container) – Pink Frosting
- Blanket Flower – Mesa Red / Mesa Bright Bicolor / a few that had self-sown from last year
- Canna Lilies – yellow (don’t know the variety)
- Catmint – Walker’s Low
- Chrysanthemum – Starlet
- Coreopsis – Golden Globe Compact
- Dahlia – Mystic Illusion (not digging the tubers up – overwintering in the ground)
- Fennel – Bronze-Leaf (non-bulbing variety I got for Swallowtail butterfly caterpillars to eat)
- Guara – Belleza Dark Pink / Karlee Petite Pink
- Gladiolus – Mon Amour
- Heather – Arina
- Heliopsis (false sunflower) – Tuscan Gold
- Hibiscus – Summerific Cherry Choco Latte / Summerific Spinderella
- Iris – Concertina / Full Tide
- Lavender – Phenomenal
- Liatris (blazing star) – variety unknown – purple/pink
- Obedient Plant – Miss Manners Pink
- Passionflower Vine (maypop) – It’s trying it’s best to take over the actual pollinator garden.
- Penstemon (beardtongue) – Onyx and Pearls
- Sage – standard garden variety / Pineapple
- Sedum – Autumn Joy
- Salvia – Black and Blue / Bumbleblue
- Sunflower – Happy Days
- Texas Primrose – Ladybird Lemonade
- Verbascum – Southern Charm
- Verbena – Cake Pops Pink
- Veronica – First Love / Sunny Border Blue / White variety