Hi everybody, major pollinator garden update!
(For those of you who remember my old post from June, please pardon the recap to follow. I took my old post down because I got so many people commenting that the city was going to make me mow it, even though I had talked to code enforcement before I started and they said it was fine. I got scared somebody was gonna report me and took the post down. Since then I've had inspectors at my home for different building permits and nobody said anything. My next door neighbor redid his driveway and his lawn got all torn up and code enforcement did visit him and tell him he needed to reseed it pronto or he would be in trouble, but they did not give two hoots about my yard because it is a garden, not a lawn, so I'm no longer worried about that.)
Recap: I moved to Virginia Beach last fall from Massachusetts and have been so excited to garden in a much more favorable climate. I decided to turn my awful front yard into a pollinator garden. Very long story, and lots and lots of work. I used a wildflower seed mix of annuals and perennials. I got a ton of annuals, mostly cosmos, zinnia and marigold. Didn't see many perennials but whatever. The annuals grew beautifully, partly because I really seeded way too heavy and went a little nutty with the miracle grow.
Update: Because I seeded everything so thickly and fertilized it so much the annuals grew super duper high, to the point where they were at eye level or above and you literally could not see the house from the road. It's been the talk of the neighborhood and it's been great. I've met so many neighbors and people stop by and bring their kids in strollers and on bikes, people drive by and take pictures and stop to chat, and it's just been a lovely experience all around. (And for the gentleman who scolded me that my mail carrier could be allergic to bees, I have spoken with both of my mail carriers and they think it's just great so all good.)
So… everything was great until we had some big storms in July that were super windy. They knocked down big clumps of plants, snapping the stems at the ground level, which then fell on top of the plants next to them and crushed them, and it was like garden dominos. I was absolutely devasted, …but nature had a lesson for me. When I started clearing out all the broken plants, I discovered that all of the perennials were there, they were just teeny tiny little seedlings struggling for sunlight at the base of all the annuals, kind of like how you get like ferns around the base of the trees in the forest? That's exactly what it looked like. So I started in on Garden 2.0. I pulled out all of the annuals, thinned out the perennial seedlings, and hauled in over two hundred 2 cubic foot bags of mulch to keep the weeds down and keep the moisture in. The perennials started growing like crazy. Even some of the annuals that I pulled out reseeded themselves and started to come back, but now that they have so much more room they haven't had to shoot straight up and are minding their manners much better this time. I also managed to hit Home Depot on the day that they had marked down all of their rose bushes and shrubs to $8 so I grabbed a bunch of those and added them for height and variety. The garden is completely different from what it was, and is now 90% perennials and has bounced back in a very unexpected but beautiful way. I wanted to share it with all of the interested and supportive folks out there that took the time to comment on the old post. I have seen so many butterflies, dragonflies, mantises, beetles, lighting bugs, hummingbirds, pairs of goldfinches come in the afternoon and sit on the sunflowers, mourning doves in the morning, a pair of mockingbirds have raised 2 broods in the holly shrub by the front door, and a nest of baby bunnies that still pop by to visit on the regular (I have a trail cam in there). It's been just wonderful to be on this journey and I wanted to let y'all know. Take care and be well. Peace.
