A New Butterfly Garden
I warned that the blank patch across from the orchard wasn’t going to be safe for long!
The plan!
We saw so many beautiful butterflies in the rain gardens last year that I decided to expand the project and build a big butterfly garden across the driveway. I wanted to incorporate more herbs to expand our collection and try to improve the drainage in a slightly wet area that flows into a culvert.
I visited Shields Herb and Flower Farm during a visit to WV and brought home a good selection of plants to get started with! I made a general map of what I was going to do. We’ll see how close I stay to it over time.
When I first digging, things were a little wetter than I’d expected…
I knew that we had a lot of clay in our soil, but the area was wetter than I expected, so I did a quick trip to Home Depot to get some sand to try to mix in to help the drainage. I dug up about the top 6-10 inches of soil and then tried to work sand into the next 6 inches down. It probably needed more than the 150 pounds of sand I added, but it was a good start!
Besides the sand, I added a LOT of mulch to the area. Our wheel barrow holds 60 gallons, and I took at least 20 trips to the mulch pile, so I moved a minimum of 1,200 gallons of mulch. I wonder if there will be anything left in the pile…
This photo is AFTER I moved the 1,200+ gallons….
On second thought, I think that the mulch pile will live to mulch another day.
Next up was the start putting plants in the ground!
I’m excited to have three new kinds of lavender -”Hidcote,” “Grosso,” and “Munstead” English Lavenders. In addition the the plants from Shields, we transplanted bee balm and bergamot from their spreading patches in the front yard and we’re hoping to split some blue flag iris we have growing next year to add to the wettest patches.
As an afterthought, I added on the the branches around the edge of the garden - partially for visual interest, but also as a potential home for beneficial insects and critters.
I still want to add a bench and some more plants, but I think that this was a good start!
Stay tuned for butterfly updates, I hope!
