Insects and Flowers

 

Full Garden after Weeding (June 7, 2021)

Wow, a little hot weather (3 days above 90F) and what a change in the garden.  Almost everything is doing really well.  We got up and weeded and watered the whole garden this morning before the temperature got too hot.  We now have Columbine blossoming as well as the Viburnam bush.  The NJ Tea is budding (this plant is new to me so I'm very interested in watching how it does).  The Purple Coneflower and Liatris are also budding. The Rose Milkweed is the only one that isn't doing well, we were concerned about this plant after our discussion with the people from CCCD. But there were no other options as the other milkweed was all sold out.  I'm still hopeful that it's just the hot weather.

 Wild Columbine  (Aquilegia canadensis) 

Arrowwood Viburnam (Viburnam dentatum)

We have several types of pollinators visiting us now.  I'm not sure what they all are so I'll put pictures in and update them as I identify them.  Please send me a comment if you know what they are. I'm just learning these so help is appreciated.

Firefly on Viburnam

Agapostemon Green Sweat Bee

Unknown tiny bee on Anise Hyssop

Hebrew Moth(?) on Solar Fountain in Birdbath

 

Pollinator Garden Beginnings

 

Location for Garden

My husband and I recently built a new smaller home.  There was little to no landscaping around our home except for the woods shown in the picture and the grass that we started last fall.  We were discussing what to do with our yard and didn't want to create a maintenance nightmare. We first saw the Conservation Opportunity Grant in The Cheshire County Conservation District newsletter in the beginning of February.  This sounded like a great opportunity to get some help for ourselves and for the native pollinators that live near us.  We did our research and came up with a plan for a pollinator garden in our back yard between the woods and lawn areas.  We actually didn’t think we stood a chance of getting the grant.  We were very surprised and excited when we got the email saying that we had been chosen as a recipient of a grant.  Our next step was the CCCD site visit scheduled for mid-May.