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.
Fall in the southeast still tends toward the warmer temps, which means that bees and butterflies are still hanging around. The scorching heat and sun of the late summer has often killed off many of the most prolific flowering plants, meaning there are less flowers for the pollinators to feed on. Adding a few fall-flowering plants can provide a …
Continue Reading about Fall Asters: Purple Blooms for Bees, Butterflies, & Beauty
I took this photo on a hot, steamy late August day on the banks of the Mississippi River near Vicksburg, Mississippi. The name of this plant just makes me smile. Fog fruit - I can just picture the fog rolling in from the river and resting around this little plant. Some people also call this plant frog fruit - just to be confusing, I …
Despite the name, you’ll find this ‘weed’ in more and more gardens. Joe Pye Weed is a good garden staple for attracting pollinators from bees to butterflies. I planted it last fall and this summer the blooms have been prolific and I have seen all sorts of bees, wasps, and flies feeding on the nectar. Joe Pye weed flowers are gorgeous. The stem …
Continue Reading about Joe Pye Weed: Native Plant that Attracts Bees & Butterflies
A few years ago, I acquired a new plant that has quickly become one of my favorites - Stokes Aster (Stokesia laevis). These stunning purple-blue flowers simply captured my heart. I really like incorporating native plants and flowers into my garden. They are easy to grow and very hardy AND they attract butterflies and hummingbirds. (Read my top …
Continue Reading about Stokes Aster – Native Plant With Beautiful Blue Flowers
In late spring and early summer, scentless mock orange (Philadelphus inodorus) is covered with bright white, 4-petaled flowers with a yellow center. These deciduous shrubs make a great privacy screen and are easy to grow. They can reach a height of 12 feet, so prune them back in summer, just after the flowers are over. (The blooms are produced …
If you've got soil that stays wet most of the time, then spotted jewelweed is the plant for you. It's native to most of the lower 48 states and prefers shade to part-shade - even better! In its native habitat, you'll find it alongside roads in ditches that stay wet most of the time, alongside a river or stream, in wetlands or boggy places, and …
Continue Reading about Spotted Jewelweed: Touch-me-not plant
