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Coastal Discovery Museum’s Butterfly Habitat Plants
Last summer we went to Coastal Discovery Museum on Hilton Head Island. The entire visit was great, but my favorite part was the butterfly habitat. I photo-documented every plant whose name was unfamiliar to me (or rather nearly all the plant tags) so that I could look them up later and determine if they could be added to my own yard. Hilton Head is Hardiness Zone 8b, and Raleigh is 7b, which means that some plants may be hardy in Hilton Head but not in my yard. Many of the plants in the habitat were right over that line between 7 and 8, so they might work better as annuals.…
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Taking care of the bumbles
I’ve always been skittish around flying insects with stingers. I blame my parents who potty trained me in the buff on the side porch, during which I was stung on the bumkin by a bee. When approached by a yellow jacket, I will actually take off in flight until I lose him. However, in the garden, there is one stinger I’ve found peace with – bumble bees! Mind you, the carpenter bees are still evil assassins that chase me for no reason, but the bumble bees are my friends After reading that bumble bees are essential for pollinating many of my garden vegetables, such as the tomato which they pollinate…
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Bee and Butterfly Garden Revamp
Our fenced kitchen garden was designed with pollinators in mind. In the southeastern corner, there is a bee and butterfly garden planted with Liatra Spicata, purple Echinacea, red gladiolas and daffodils (primarily for me), and several other potted perennial flowers I picked up during the summer. The Kniphofia (Traffic Lights) didn’t blossom this summer, but I think they did at least grow plants. The real problem with the bee and butterfly garden is that its location in the corner makes weeding a real problem. I was not about to attempt weeding while the Liatra Spicata were in blossom. From sunup to sundown, the bees loved this flower. There was no…
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Itsy Bitsy & Our Garden Friends
After last week’s downpour, I was a little heartbroken for the Man-child that his friend Itsy Bitsy had vanished. The only evidence of her existence was her shredded, abandoned web. Several days later, I was outside the fence and spied a new writing spider, and we determined that she was Itsty Bitsy’s younger cousin, Little Bitsy. Litty Bitsy This evening (garden walk!) I was picking at the tomato vines and nearly jumped to see Itsy Bitsy had returned and was right at my eye level. Hello! Where have you been? I ran back inside yelling excitedly for Man-child, who was just as excited to see she had returned. Her new…
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Discovery: Bumblebees and Sunflowers
Last summer’s garden was such a disappointment – even the bees wouldn’t come visit it. I’m not sure what happened exactly, because I had bees early in the season, but they disappeared as soon as things heated up. Even with attempting to self-pollinate the tomatoes and squash, production was abnormally low. This Spring I loaded the garden with sunflowers seeds, flower bulbs and wildflower seeds hoping to entice the pollinators with something a little better than the clover that keeps taking over the lawn. My two kinds of lavender blossomed and I let some of the oregano blossom rather than pruning it all back. Sure enough, the bees are thrilled…
