Wildflower Wednesday: Embrace imperfection in your garden!

That's what I've done!

When you commit to a pesticide free garden you have to be prepared for chewed on petals and foliage.

Are you ready to embrace imperfection?

You won't be sorry when you do.  Bees, butterflies, skippers, beetles and hoverflies will move into your garden. It will be alive with critters.

Your garden will not be magazine perfect, but, pollinators don't care if your flower petals are chewed on.  They need flowers bursting with pollen and nectar. Your garden will be teeming with life. Spiders will build webs; the beneficial insects will keep aphids in check; pollinators will pollinate; and, birds will hunt the insects.

It will be a beautiful imperfect garden, just as it's supposed to be.

When you let go of pesticides and embrace imperfection you become the change our world needs.

• You can help create a paradigm shift that redefines garden beauty to include imperfection.
• You can refuse to be shamed or swayed by the judgement of perfection worshipers.
• You can say no to pesticides that poison flowers and kill our important garden visitors.
• You can let nursery managers know that you don't need or expect them to offer "perfect plants" that have pretreated with insecticides.

You just have to do it!

If we all work together, we can become the change our world needs.
xoxogail

Welcome to Wildflower Wednesday. It's the fourth Wednesday of each month and time to celebrate wildflowers from all over this great big, beautiful world. When I walked around the garden planning for WW, I noticed that several coneflowers had been chewed on by insects. It seemed an opportune time to  encourage my fellow wildflower enthusiasts to embrace the beauty of a pesticide free garden's imperfection. All the coneflowers shown (Echinacea tennesseensis, E purpurea and Echinacea cultivars including 'Ruby Star', 'Magnus', and 'Prairie Splendor') are imperfect beauties. Not only have they been chewed on by critters, their offspring are different looking with their petals poking every which way.  It happens~plants get chewed on and offspring are not true! Happy Wildflower Wednesday!

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Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

Nashville In Bloom: July GBBD

Sunday morning we headed to downtown Nashville to walk. There's a great pedestrian bridge that crosses the Cumberland River and it's a good place to view the city skyline. The bridge always lives up to its promise of marvelous views and photo ops!

But, we weren't there to just see the Nashville Skyline, we were heading to someplace special.

Just below the bridge on the edge of the river is Cumberland Park.

According to Metro parks literature "Cumberland Park is an innovative play space for children and families incorporating unique play structures and water features to create an exciting new attraction along Nashville’s riverfront.  The park is designed to engage children and adults in a variety of creative play settings and contains a series of play zones that offer a range of both active and passive recreational features such as natural play equipment for children, spray-grounds and water jets, bridges, climbing walls, walking paths, picnic areas, a stage with an open lawn, and a river walk."
 

Echinaceas, spent Coreopsis, emerging Rudbeckias, grasses and sedges

That is certainly true, but, the main attraction for me are the plantings along the Explorer Trail.

Echinacea and native trees

The crushed-stone trail weaves through tree, shrub and meadow plantings that are designed to attract butterflies, bees and other wildlife.

Joe-Pye weed

I think the natives are perfect to share with you for July Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Above is a Eupatorium dubium. I've written about the Joes here.

Clethra alnifolia 'Ruby Spice' is mass planted along one curve in the trail and not only looked spectacular, it was covered with pollinators.

Right now, the Echinaceas are the dominant plant in bloom, but, the Black Eyed Susans, Butterflybush and native grasses are beginning to strut their stuff.

move over Lurie, Nashville has a pretty garden with architectural punctuations!

There were really cool sedges and grasses that I couldn't id in this hillside planting, but, next time I'll take my books with me!

Although, there were many bumblebees all over the plants, there were no butterfly to be seen.

Little Bluestem, a delightful native to Tennessee prairies and prairie remnants,  was planted throughout the trails and walkways. I promise to bring you back here this fall when the late blooming wildflowers and grasses are in full bloom.

Thank you for coming along with me as I explored Nashville's very own little pollinator haven along the Cumberland River.  Now popover to Carol's at May Dreams Gardens to see more gardens and blooming plants from all over this great big beautiful world.

xoxogail

PS Lest you think my garden is bare~Here's a peak

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

I Dig This Bee!

...and she's digging my coneflowers!

She's a Sunflower Bee or Svastra obliqua* and she's been visiting the Echinacea purpurea all day.

  Those tufts of hair on her legs that look like fuzzy leg warmers (scopae) are designed to collect and carry pollen

Svastra obliqua is found from Mexico to Montana, and east to Quebec, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Florida; it's one of the most common and abundant species in the Svastra genus. Sunflower bees are major pollinators of commercial sunflower crops, but, they will forage on many flowers in the asteraceae family.

She's had plenty of opportunity to sup on nectar and gather pollen as she moves around the new coneflower at Clay and Limestone.  She'll work one coneflower, then move to the next, never stopping to visit the Gaillardias, Asclepias or Zinnias that are planted in the same containers.

You've probably observed this same behavior among many of the pollinators in your garden. Biologists call this phenomenon flower constancy.

Pollinators that practice flower constancy will pass on more nectar rich plants in favor of a known and reliable nectar reward.  The question of why this flower constancy exists is a rich and important one that is beyond the scope of this post,...If you want to explore the science please go here and here.

But, here's what I have observed in my garden! My Bumbles practice flower constancy; some work the agastache, others work the lavender and while Svastra obliqua was visiting my garden, she worked the coneflowers.  (The other thing I have noticed was how much more sense it makes to have drifts of these plants rather than a plant here and a plant there. bees don't have to work as hard to get their rewards or help us get ours~pollinated plants.)

 I am so glad a Svastra obliqua stopped by to hang around on the coneflowers! It was a treat. I met a new pollinator, learned about flower preferences and watched my hard working gardening friends dance among their favorite flowers.

That's what gardening for wildlife is all about!

xoxogail


PS I am so very sure you don't need me to remind you that if you want pollinators in your garden, you must never, ever, ever, ever use pesticides.


  *  The Sunflower Bee looks remarkably similar to another Long-Horned Bee, Melissodes...but, it's much larger.


Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone." She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.