Many homeowners enjoy the benefits of choosing native plants to landscape their property. Our journey started with planting pollinator-friendly annuals in the vegetable garden and continued with replacing lifeless lawns with dedicated pollinator gardens.
In 2021, we embraced the idea that our property is a pollinator garden. This summer, our yard was bustling with native birds and insects feeding, breeding, and living in the native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous perennials we added to our landscaping.
Below are some highlights of our 2021 pollinator season.
Cardinal Flower, Nasturtium, and Anise Hyssop kept our hummingbirds returning to our yard all season!
A large carpenter bee's approach and landing on a borage flower
Admire this beautiful caterpillar at a distance. The barbs of the saddleback caterpillar deliver a nasty sting!
A large milkweed bug peers over through budding milkweed flowers.
An eastern tiger swallowtail feeds on a coneflower. These beautiful flowers are ideal for natural landscapes, offering nectar to native pollinators and seeds to native birds.
Black Swallowtail caterpillars feed on lovage.
Mugshots of a fritillary feeding on anise hyssop.
Monarch feeding on zinnia
Large carpenter bees are enjoying anise hyssop and monarda.
Hoverfly feeding on a daisy
A hairstreak and a spring azure visit the herb garden.
The last butterfly shot of 2021! Clouded sulphur feeds on zinnia.
This fall, we added several native berry-bearing native plants to our landscape.
Elderberry
Winterberry
Witch Hazel
Northern bayberry
Fothergilla
Serviceberry
Cherokee Dogwood
Viburnum -Possum Haw, Brandywine, and Winterthur
Next season, local wildlife will breed, feed, and live in these native shrubs and understory trees!
All photographs, unless otherwise noted, were taken on our one-acre property in eastern PA.
Photographs by SuperNaturalist.net
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