Yesterday I planted a butterfly garden. Last night, actually, had to do it in the evening after kids went to bed and it cooled down.
The garden patch of raised beds is what I see from the kitchen window, and when we moved into this house, the beds were, well, a wreck. But it was the wrong time of year to do anything about it. Had to wait for enough clear weather to get out, clear the mess, bag up the weeds and haul ’em to the curb for pickup, and get plants for a flower garden. I picked several items to attract hummingbirds and butterflies, including one lovely butterfly bush with gorgeous rich purple flowers. (The flowers sort of resemble lilac bunches and the perfume is amazing.) Now we need to bark it all in and give the roses some food, and probably the rest of the plants could use general feeding, too. It got hot yesterday and they got wilty.
But today it’s a garden. Will post before and after pics.
Updated to add: Click here to view the slideshow! Before, after, and some close-ups. As you can see, the dog is exhausted from supervising.
Congrats on the garden. Can’t wait to see pics. That’s one of the reasons I’d like my own house, I have a serious case of garden envy *g*.
Thanks, Ann, will get pics up later today. We’re in the woods so our lot is wooded and mostly has nature’s landscaping (rhodies, ferns, evergreens) except for these 3 raised beds. The one spot of garden! But there are beautiful gardens in this area. The whole region is very temperate with a long growing season, a real haven for gardeners.
I’ve always wanted a butterful garden. I can’t wait to see the pictures, Charli.
NJ, it was very fun to design and pick the plants. : ) The dirty, sweaty part, not so fun, but the creative part, yep! And it gave me a new book idea, too. Looking forward to watching butterflies and hummingbirds out there.
The pictures are lovely, Charli. And I can tell that the dog worked extremely hard. *g*
Cool that you got a book idea. That’s alwasy a good thing. 🙂
Yep, always good to have more books cooking on the back burner! The garden turned out well, although anything would’ve been an improvement over the weed patch. *g*