Pocket meadow in mid-August

Eupatorium perfoliatum (Common Boneset), Eutrochium purpureum (Joe-Pye), various Liatris species, Heliopolis, Parthenium integrefolium (Wild Quinine), and three different Vernonia species are welcoming pollinators of all sorts in the pocket meadow in mid-August. 

Not to mention the Brazilian sage and Rudbeckia triloba to the other side of the driveway, which are frequented by bees and hummingbirds.

Squash, tomatillo, and bean flowers attract a variety of bees, including the specialist squash bees.

Posted with Blogsy

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Pocket meadow: pollinators welcome

The pocket meadow in front of the house continues to transform, but is especially lively now, as (normally) fall-flowering plants like Joe-Pye, Vernonia spp., and Solidago are in flower or starting to flower.

Pocket meadow - pollinator-friendly!

On the other side of the driveway, Salvia guaranitica continues to welcome hummingbirds and bees of all sorts, accompanied by a tall Rudbeckia triloba.

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Planting pollinator gardens

There's an excellent new initiative, from a consortium of groups, from non-profits to garden groups, in association with the recent federal initiative around promoting pollinator plantings.

It's called the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge.

It's a good thing.

I "registered" my small landscape yesterday, which includes a pocket meadow and an informal perennial bed full of natives below the house (not to mention all of the native plants planted elsewhere).

It doesn't take much to transform a "traditional" perennial bed into a pollinator-friendly one.  But I'm feeling that we definitely need to encourage folks to do that, as well as transform lawns into life-supporting plantings.

I'm getting weary of seeing nothing but plants that just sit there, and don't "work for a living" in residential and commercial landscapes.

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Sedums at Toronto Botanical Garden

These were delightful mixes of sedums and their friends in carefully planted boxes along the path.

They're largely the sort that need to be brought in over winter;  glorious, never the less!

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