End of June Update - including a Salamander

 

New Jersey Tea in Full Bloom 

The New Jersey Tea has reached full bloom and is now going past.  Having never seen this plant before I am pleased to say we love it.  It is covered with this tiny white flowers that smell very nice.  When the wind blows (which seems to be always lately), the flowers dance in the wind.  The bees and flies love this plant as well.

Bee Balm

The Bee Balm is also starting to blossom - it's nice to see these starting to show their red colors.  These should also bring in the Hummingbirds to drink.

Purple Coneflower

The purple coneflowers are our next blossomers.  They are interesting the way that the flowers start to show with first green petals, changing to pink petals and then to the pinky-purple color you see in the picture.

This morning we caught our second glance at a Red Newt Salamander.  Unfortunately we never have our camera with us when we see it.  My husband and I will keep trying to catch it for a glamour shot.

More Insects and a Toad

 

American Toad

Things are slowing down on the plant front.  The next to blossom will most likely be the Purple Coneflower.  However, the animals are starting to appear.  We found a small toad on the edge of the garden.  As you can see above, it is very prettily colored. We also have several Garden Ghost Spiders (see below).

Garden Ghost Spider

Green and Black Dragonfly

This dragonfly landed next to me on the patio.  I was fortunate to be able to grab a picture before it took off again.  It is beautiful, but I haven't been able to identify it yet.

Columbine

The Columbine blossomed and quickly went by.  Perhaps it was the heat.  I was lucky to get this picture because they have all gone by now.

New Jersey Tea

The NJ Tea bush is still progressing towards being fully opened.  There are several small bees/hornets buzzing around it but so far I haven't been able to get a picture of them.

General Update:  The longest lasting flower so far has been the Beardstongue, followed by the Anise Hyssop.  The NJ Tea also looks to be a contender for this.  Also the Rose Milkweed that wasn't looking so good has recovered and no is doing well.

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

 

More Flowers Opening & Insects Arriving

 

White Mountain Laurel

More of the plants are starting to blossom.  It appears that we have 2 different colors of Mountain Laurel.  The first one shown above is mostly white.  While the second one is light pink (see below). They are both very pretty.

Pink Mountain Laurel

The next flower is opening as well.  This is Anise Hyssop.  Right now only one plant has opened but it is a pretty purple flower. 

Anise Hyssop

Last but not least, we're starting to see some activity from butterflies and insects.  I haven't been able to get a picture of the butterflies, but below is a picture of a pair of spiders and another insect that I'm not sure what it is. They appear to both be mating.

 

Final Report Completed and Plant List

 We finished our final report on the garden today and will submit to the Cheshire County Conservation District.  Overall this grant process has not been difficult and it makes you think about what you are doing before you do it.  For a little planning an paperwork, we now have a beautiful pollinator garden.  More pictures to come when the weather is nicer.  For now, here's a list of the plants that we put into the garden.

List of Plants in Garden:

Foxglove Beardtongue - Penstemon digitalis

Purple Coneflower - Echinacea purpurea

Blue Wild Indigo - Baptisia australis

Wild Columbine - Aquilegia canadensis

Rose Milkweed - Asclepias incarnata

Purple Bergamot - Monarda media

Blanket Flower - Gaillardia aristata

Anise Hyssop -Agastache foeniculum

Scarlet Bee Balm - Monarda didyma

Spotted Bee Balm - Monarda punctata

Northern Blazing Star - Liatris scariosa

Showy Goldenrod - Solidago speciosa

Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida)

New Jersey Tea Plant (Ceanothus)

Mountian Laurel (Kalmia latifolia)

Arrowwood Viburnam (Viburnam dentatum)

Ninebark - Little Devil

Finishing the Planting

 

After checking the garden over, we decided we needed one more shrub, so we went to Agway and purchased a Little Diablo Ninebark. It was the perfect finishing touch.

We also added another ½ yard of mulch as it seemed skimpy in a few places.  The garden seems to be finished for right now.  We will have to wait to see if anything else is needed.  Now it’s time to water until the plants are established and watch for weeds.  It’s so beautiful and peaceful, it’s hard to believe that our yard was just dirt last year.

Mulch Day

 

Mulch day – we started early so that we would be finished before it got too hot.  1 ½ yards of mulch later we had spread the mulch around the plants leaving nice pockets to hold water around each plant.  We thought we were done but wanted to think about it so we watered the mulch in and then sat back to enjoy our hard work.

Next, we decided to move our bird bath into the garden.  We had ordered a solar fountain for the bird bath to squirt water into the air from Amazon and that came today so we set that into the bird bath.  We have a titmouse nest in our forested area and they came over to check out the bird bath/fountain.

We’ve had a few Sulfur butterflies and some bees as well today.