By mid-July the garden is lush and full and pollinators are numerous. For this month's Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, I am sharing our pocket meadows.
Our first pocket meadows was installed seven years ago to revive an area that had poor compacted soil at the northeast corner of our property. We selected a seed mix with perennials that would put nutrients back into the soil and included summer and fall blooming plants to support a wide variety of pollinators. With the success of this meadow we added another along our back drive so that we could enjoy watching all the pollinators from our living room window.
Both pocket meadows includes seasonal grasses and bold perennial wildflowers that are classic meadow plants. This is what is blooming in July.
 |
Purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea)
|
 |
Echinacea purpurea (front) with
Chamaecrista fasciculata (back) |
 |
| Partridge Pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata) |
a bumble bee favorite |
 |
| Gray-headed coneflowers (Ratibida pinnata) |
 |
bees love coneflowers
|
 |
Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)
| a favorite of hummingbirds, butterflies and bees |
|
 |
| bumble bee and silvery spotted skipper sharing a bloom |
 |
check out the shiny hiney of this carpenter bee
|
 |
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
|
 |
| Black eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) |
 |
silvery checkerspot butterfly
|
 |
leafcutter bee loaded with pollen
|
 |
Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) host plant for Monarch butterflies and Milkweed Tussock Moth
|
|
 |
bumblebee and silvery checkerspot butterflies
|
also a bee favorite.
One of the beauties of pocket meadows is that they are pretty low maintenance. This is especially welcome during the summer months when the heat and humidity are raging. The plants in our meadow are drought tolerant and deer resistant and support many pollinators and beneficial insects.
Looking for more garden inspiration? Visit May Dreams Gardens to see what is blooming in gardens across the world.
