Garden Experiments
For the love of gardening and wildlife habitat
Native plants are well-suited to the growing conditions in your area and are often great nesting habitat, a food source, or a host plant for the wildlife around you. By adding native plants to your garden, you can create wildlife habitat that helps pollinators like bees and butterflies, attracts hummingbirds and songbirds, and provides cover for many small mammals. Learn about native plants and how to grow them in your garden.
Have you got swampy soil? Then this is the perfect flowering plant solution for your garden. Native to the marshes and swamps of the southeastern states – from Louisiana to North Carolina –swamp mallows (Hibiscus coccineus) prefer wet soil and even standing water. Swamp Mallow is Perfect for Wet Soil I had one spot in my front flowerbeds …
Continue Reading about Scarlet Rose Mallow (Hibiscus coccineus): Hardy Native for Wet Soils
If you like butterflies, than planting both plants that host the larvae and feed the butterflies are important. These are some of the flowering herbaceous plants (and one vine) suitable for planting in the southeast for the butterflies that we have here. Flowering plants that are host to larvae of the butterfly Flowering plants that provide …
Continue Reading about Food Plants for Butterflies and Caterpillars
As a native plant, cross vine has a big advantage - it's easy to grow, hardy, tolerates the heat, has a low water requirement, and can grow in both full sun and part shade. It's in the same family as trumpet creeper (Bignoniaceae), and the flowers are very similar - trumpet-shaped, 2" long tubular, and bright orange-red/yellow. Cross vine is …
Purple passionflower (Passiflora incarnata), also known as maypop, is a relatively quick-growing, perennial, herbaceous vine in the Passifloraceae family. You can find this native vine growing throughout the Southeast from Texas to Kansas, up to Pennsylvania, and down to Florida. In the southeastern U.S., I’ve often seen it growing naturally in …
Continue Reading about How to Grow Purple Passionflower – Native Vine for Butterflies
If you want to add some color to your winter garden and provide food and shelter for songbirds and other wildlife simultaneously, American Holly (Ilex opaca) is a good choice. The berries form in October and persist throughout the winter when many other food sources are gone. Its leaves are evergreen and form a dense canopy. The bright red …
Continue Reading about Plant American Holly for Winter Color and Wildlife Food
If you’d like to see more wildlife in your garden in winter, be sure to include plants that provide food and cover in the fall and winter. Some of these plants are evergreen, providing necessary cover, and some have fruits, seeds, or nuts that persist into winter. Here are some (mostly native) plant suggestions that can be used throughout …
Continue Reading about Plants that provide food and shelter in fall and winter for wildlife
