Bird & Butterfly Garden

This was the first section, or bed, of my garden I created. I still call it the bird and butterfly garden although most of the beds I have added on my property are planted with wildlife in mind. Here is a time line from beginning to date of this section of my garden in the making.

We moved into our house in October of 2007. Directly above is a "before" photo in the early Spring of 2008 followed by the early stages of this bed in the making. The middle and top view show the plantings around mid-to-late Summer of 2008.

 

Directly above is the same bed in the early Spring of 2009. The views above that, showing the bed in June and July of 2009.

And here, above, is the bed in the late Spring of 2010. It is really filling in and now there is sprouting, unfurling, stretching, growing, and colors blooming each month of the summer from early spring into fall.

 

Summer of 2010 (above). The mason bee house hanging on the garage wall is finally active. The plants have outgrown the original bird bath I had in place. I have added a tall driftwood "sculpture" that I interpret to be a Blue Heron as they are common here along the river.

Late Summer/Fall 2010 (above). The joe-pye and perennial sunflowers are as tall as the top of the window. Now we have strong skeletons to stand through the winter and add interest, many seeds to feed the winter birds, many stalks to house and protect insects.

This is the first section of my garden I have featured in a time line. I will be featuring my entire garden. I hope to have these posts remain in my sidebar for visitors to view my garden at a glance. I also plan to keep them updated as my garden grows. You may remember my older slide show "In the Making," but I've found as my garden continues to expand, the slide show to be too long and not load fast enough. Thank you for joining me in my garden in the making!