Thank you for joining me in the making of my garden. This section is the beginning of my garden – the first bed I created. I call it the Bird & Butterfly Garden because my intention was to plant plants to attract birds and butterflies. To view a sequential slide show of the making of the Bird & Butterfly Garden, simply click on the first image below. You will be taken to an enlarged viewing screen. Click the arrows on either side of each image to navigate, or use the arrows on your keyboard. (Please note the slideshow may not work properly on your mobile phone.)

The beginnings of the Bird & Butterfly Garden Summer 2008. I have added two ornamental grasses, Miscanthus ‘Morning Light’ and Panicum, Switch Grass ‘Dallas Blues.’ Not only will they offer cover and protection for birds and insects but they will take the place of shrubs in this border with their large upright habit and winter interest. Coneflowers were planted for their nectar and seeds. A patch of bee balm attracts hummingbirds.

The new bed wraps around to the back of the workshop/garage. A Forsythia that I grew from a cutting from my Maine garden anchors the corner. Not the best choice for birds and butterflies, a native flowering shrub such as the Swallowtail host plant Spicebush would be a better choice in retrospect, also offering early blooms and berries, but the Forsythia holds sentimental value for me and I enjoy bringing cuttings indoors in early spring.

What a difference a year makes! The Bird & Butterfly Garden in the Summer of 2009. Verbascum (the tall yellow spikes of flowers), a bee magnet, has seeded itself freely. Shasta daisies make good landing pads for a variety of pollinators. What hummingbird would pass up that bright red patch of bee balm?

Heliopsis ‘Summer Nights’ shriveled up and disappeared in 2009 only to reappear and reappear throughout the entire bed in subsequent years. It has even appeared across the driveway on the other side of the workshop. I’m certain birds helped propagate this plant throughout my garden by eating and dispersing its seeds. And what butterfly could resist a landing pad like this? Its stems also house beneficial insects through the Winter.

A Joe and Susan love affair in the Fall of 2011. If I could only plant one plant to attract butterflies and birds, my choice would be Joe-Pye Weed. The minute Joe opens its tiny flowerettes, they are swarmed by butterflies, bees, hummingbirds and many kinds of pollinators. The birds, especially Chickadees I’ve noticed, feed upon the seed heads of Black-eyed Susans throughout the Winter.

Daffodils are beginning to naturalize by Spring 2012. Forsythia blooms in the background. Although these bright yellow blooms offer me a good dose of Spring cheer, none of them offers any nectar for early bees, aside from Crocus. I hope to add native ephemerals such as Virginia Bluebells and Hepatica over the next few years for my insect friends.

Rounding the corner, the bed is expanded further out from the workshop in 2012, and a Yellow Twig Dogwood and low growing evergreens are added. The dogwood will offer Spring flowers that are useful to pollinators, berries for the birds, and yellow stems for winter interest, especially set against the evergreens which will provide more cover. A young River Birch is also planted, providing more seed for birds and a host plant for Mourning Cloak butterflies. The grass path is narrowing between the Bird & Butterfly Garden and the newer Woodland Edge bed to the left. One day the two beds will merge.
01/11/2014 at 2:37 pm
Wow! What an Amazing garden you have created here. I’m so pleased to have found you and to see what you’ve done in such a short time. Your plants grow so well and fit perfectly in your planting spaces and the color schemes and variety are tremendous! I could learn a Lot from you, and I intend to! 😉
Thanks for doing this great tutorial and slide-show,
Steve
01/11/2014 at 2:45 pm
Thank you Steven, that so encourages me! I need to pull a few things out of this bed and do some dividing very soon. The Husker’s Red just about disappeared last year. I hope I can rescue it early Spring. This winter I am taking the Master Gardener course at our cooperative extension through Cornell. I hope to learn much and share all I know.
09/14/2014 at 1:35 pm
This is just the best! What a fantastic garden you have and that bird/butterfly area (border) is so pretty. Did you have a list of plants you wanted to get into the patch or did you just pick and choose as you went along?
09/14/2014 at 6:27 pm
Hi Sophie, thanks! I do keep running lists of native plants that are beneficial to wildlife and try to always purchase those on my running list vs. plants that attract me in the nursery! The Bird & Butterfly Garden came together pretty quickly. I knew I wanted bee and bird friendly plants and threw in some Milkweed for Monarchs but many of the plants were given to me by generous gardeners. It has grown up all by itself and some of the plants have not competed well. Huskers Red was absent this year and an aster I tried to incorporate. I hope to replace those and generously give away some Joe and Susans! The helianthus is larger than life this year and the Miscanthus suffered from last winter but is still there. It could probably use a little more room and my help to thrive. The oenothera outdid the geranium and I love that geranium! I moved some of the geranium to another part of the garden to make sure I still have some stock. It is a lesson to learn what plants will thrive, what gets along, and what plants will decline over time. I try not to interfere too much.
07/29/2016 at 7:38 pm
Kathy, you give me inspiration! I have just started to dig out and expand a 30 year old garden at my cabin in the woods of West Tennessee. The original owner had iris, amaryllis, crepe myrtle and a butterfly bush. Last year I added shrubs that I had missed from my childhood: Lilacs. ( My husband and I lived in south Texas 22 years before we settled here 3 years ago and gardening was difficult in the poor soil and heat.) I have also added another butterfly bush to attract the butterflies. This year I have started to really look at what is needed to actually support butterfly and hummingbird life. There are some native plants growing naturally here already and we are respecting their growing space along the edge of the woods. I am making lists of native plants to add to what will be an ever expanding garden. I still want to have some of the plants I loved like the lilacs, roses and iris, but I am finding many of the native plants are just as beautiful.
07/30/2016 at 10:33 am
Oh, how I love to hear the word inspiration Deborah! I am sure you will enjoy gardening in beautiful TN. In spite of its name, Butterfly Bush is not the best choice for a butterfly garden, but it is beautiful! I don’t grow it here because the climate is a little too cold. My favorite butterfly and hummingbird attractor is Joe Pye. Try to choose plants that have a long bloom time or a variety of plants so that something is always in bloom from Spring to Fall. To attract butterflies you should also include host plants in your garden for caterpillars (caterpillars attract more birds, too!). Here is a wonderful place to start: http://www.dallasbutterflies.com/Butterfly%20Gardening/Host%20Plants%20by%20Butterfly%20Species.htm I wish you much success and years of enjoyment in your new gardening adventure!
08/03/2017 at 10:12 am
What pretty photos! Absolutely love flower gardens.
08/03/2017 at 1:55 pm
Thank you campers. I never did thin out this bed. You should see it now!!!
08/03/2017 at 7:34 pm
We may have to, bet it came out beautifully