A FEW MINUTES IN THE GARDEN

We’ve got a small wildflower garden in the corner of our front yard where the rain gauges are. It looked odd to have the gauges in the front yard in the first place, but that’s where the weather service put the big one, so that’s where they all went. I planted a few Gregg’s Blue Mistflower around them the first year, and that looked pretty good. It calmed the corner a bit and made the rain gauges look like they belonged there and not something left on the street to be picked up.
The next year fall asters moved in on their own, so I enlarged the flower bed a bit more and added skullcap and ox-eye daisies to the edges. This year it grew again when we put in Lemon Bee balm, Chamomile and Indian Blanket, and now it’s 8 x8 feet square. It looks really nice there in the corner, and several people have commented how pretty the bee balm looks. I’ll have to trim the asters back a bit when they get too high (can’t block the rain gauges!)

That little corner garden has evolved into a native bee magnet. It’s amazing the variety of bees that show up there. This sunny morning in July I spent just over ten minutes taking photos of the bees there and ended up with
American Bumble Bee Bombus pensylvanicus
Eastern Carpenter Bee Xylocopa virginica
Halictidae (maybe genus Augochlora )
Metallic Green Bees genus Agapostemon

Southern Bronze Banded Bee
Halictus Ligatus
Leafcutter bee Megachile parallela
a tiny Leafcutter bee genus Megachile
Leafcutter bee genus Megachile
Resin Bee genus Heriades
Long-horned Bee Svastra obliqua
Plus a tiny Tiphiid wasp Tiphia vernalis, was in the grass next to the garden.
No Honey Bees in the garden that morning, they were all busy in the crape myrtle (and they aren’t native, anyway).

Posted on July 11, 2016 04:59 PM by cgritz cgritz

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Photos of these observations can be seen here: https://www.inaturalist.org/calendar/cgritz/2016/7/10

Posted by cgritz over 7 years ago

That slippery slope from native flowers to native pollinators, yep!

Posted by ellen5 over 7 years ago

It always amazes me how diverse the wildlife is in even a small plot of land if we will only look! I have 2 acres in a semi-rural area west of Austin and have documented many hundreds of different moths, other insects, birds, etc. Just amazing what will show up if we help the habitat to have some natural plants!

Posted by greglasley over 7 years ago

I haven't planted anything in a while since we've been planning to move forever, but I can't believe the bugs that will show up for blooming mint, sunflowers, and yard asters (darn things aren't pretty but sure bring in the bugs!) Can't wait to plant a native butterfly garden again soon!

Posted by kimberlietx over 7 years ago

I totally agree -- if we spend a little extra time in ANY location, we notice a bazillion new little critters and plants. And if you establish some native plants, the diversity goes way up. :)

Pre-iNat, I never really noticed this.

Posted by sambiology over 7 years ago

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