Barb’s Garden Habitat

Beauty and habitat coexist

Hi . I am Barb Mrgich , a Master Gardener from Adams County , Pennsylvania . I have gardened on the same land in Zone 6B for 34 years . For the past 10 years , I have been tardily tot up more and more aboriginal plants to the pointedness where I now prefer to think of my property more as a habitat than just a garden .

This is gaillardia(Gaillardiapulchella , Zones 5–8 ) , a nativewildflower . It ’s a very colorful , happy peak that attracts lot of bees , butterflies , and otherpollinatorsbecause of its rich , abundantnectar . Sometimes calledblanket blossom , it is a short - dwell perennial that unremarkably only live for three yr or less . However , its greatseed headsproduce many seeds . It ’s easy to save some to replant .

This has always been one of my favorite moving-picture show of myfront railway yard . There is actually grass — you just ca n’t see it from the angle of the picture .

Penstemon(hardiness varies by mintage ) is such a pretty spring - floweringnative perennial . Most are either pinkish or blanched . I bed to look on the bee crawl into the flower for a sip of nectar . Penstemons produce big , attractive seed head . They reseed readily . If you do n’t need so many , just snip off the seed heads .

This carpenter bee ( see its shiny abdomen ? ) is sipping nectar from a coneflower(Echinacea purpurea , Zones 3–8 ) . Most gardenbeesare very docile and will not stick you . Only female are capable of stinging .

This easterly Panthera tigris morning coat is one of our most common butterflies in Pennsylvania . It is nectaring on azinnia(Zinnia elegans , annual).I like the way its soundbox is striped to match its wings . you could see its proboscis , which it use like a straw to draw the nectar from the bloom .

mark anything unusual about this picture ? It ’s a beautiful monarch butterfly chrysalis , but it is attached to fennel(Foeniculumvulgare , Zones 4–9 ) , notmilkweed(Asclepiasspp . ) as you might gestate . The finocchio is growing very near to the silkweed . The caterpillar probably just wandered over and up the tallfennelto go into its chrysalis when it was ready . We searched the Florence fennel flora depend for the chrysalis of a black swallowtail and were quite surprised to find the monarch .

purulent willows(Salixspecies ) come up up against an early spring , clean depressed sky . Catkins of the aboriginal pussy willow provision some of the first and most important ambrosia for midget pollinators . songbird are then attract to the catkins because of all the tiny insects . Thebirdspeck and peck at the insects , often knocking catkins right off the fore of the plant life . It ’s great fun to follow ! The puss willow tree is ahostfor the Limenitis archippus butterfly stroke . At the time of this photo , those tiny , threadlike caterpillars were envelop in a leaf at the al-Qaeda of the bush where they fell last fall . Once the shrub develops its leaves , those tinycaterpillarswill crawl up the trunks and begin to eat .

A red maple(Acerrubrum , Zones 3–9 ) is adorn in Baron Snow of Leicester against a clear wintertime sky . Thisred mapleis not only a beautiful tree diagram but is also a host to the eastern tiger mash that grace my garden every twelvemonth .

Have photograph to share ? We ’d love to see your garden , a fussy solicitation of plants you love , or a terrific garden you had the chance to chaffer !

To accede , charge 5 - 10 exposure to[email protected]along with some info about the plant in the pictures and where you took the photos . We ’d love to hear where you are located , how long you ’ve been garden , successes you are proud of , failures you learned from , hopes for the future , favorite plants , or mirthful stories from your garden .

Have a nomadic phone ? give chase your photograph onFacebook , InstagramorTwitterwith # FineGardening !

Do you receive the GPOD by email yet?Sign up here .

Fine Gardening Recommended Products

Ho - Mi Digger - Korean Triangle Blade

engraft in a Post - Wild Earth : Designing Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes

ARS Telescoping Long Reach Pruner

Get our latest bakshish , how - to articles , and instructional video send to your inbox .

Signing you up …

Michelle’s Habitat Gardens in Pennsylvania

Butterflies in Barb’s Garden

Libby’s Backyard Wildlife Habitat

A Pollinator Garden on Lake Huron

Join hunky-dory horticulture for a free engaging unrecorded webinar feature Dr. Janna Beckerman , a renowned works diagnostician as well as professor emerita at Purdue University and the ornamentals technical coach …

When I spot a particular moxie dollar cactus ( Astrophytum asterias ) at the Philadelphia Flower Show a few months ago , I knew I was in trouble . With a delightful color rule …

When we only prioritise industrial plant we want over plants our landscape painting motive , each season is filled with a never - end lean of chores : pruning , pinching , tearing , treating , rectify , and fertilizing , with …

garden in spring with bulbs and flowers in a containers

Video

Touring an Eco-friendly, Shady Backyard Retreat

You must be careful when you enter the backyard of garden decorator Jeff Epping — not because you ’re likely to trip up on something , but because you might be dive - bomb by a duo …