Meadow And Pollinator Beds

 You may recall that I decided to establish a 30'x15' Meadow Garden and a separate 10' diameter Pollinator Garden in the back yard several years ago.  Both have failed.  I got great results at first from broadcasting seed mixes on the newly-tilled soil.  The annuals did well.  But the perennials never got established.

The 2nd year, scattering thistle seeds in one and saved marigold seeds in the other produced a flush of flowers in each, but those were also annuals.  Nothing grew the next season.

I was disappointed, of course.  It is my fault.  I always try to do things too quickly.  I should have covered the beds for a season after tilling to smother all weeds before I planted anything.  I am impatient sometimes.

This past Spring, I ordered a selection of potted assorted self-sowing meadow flowers from Prairie Moon Nursery.  They are a quality nursery and no blame to them.  I planted them according to instructions but saw no flowers this year.  But I had labels for each in front of each transplant.

A slight aside, I planted seeds of Maltese Cross and Butterfly Weed (a dryland type of Milkweed) elsewhere 2 years ago (where I had smothered the weeds for a year) and this year, most bloomed.  So sometimes it takes a couple of years for some perennials.

With that in mind, I mowed the Meadow Bed just above label height.  I crawled through the bed carefully on hands and knees, searching for labels.  I found 32 of 38 labels and marked each with a landscaping flag.

I'll find the other 6 when the frost kills the weeds and they decay over Winter.  Then, I'll put a 10"x10" slotted holed cardboard (I have cardboard from some stuff I order regularly) around each plant to keep the weeds away.  That should give them a good chance to grow.  Most of the meadow plants grow 3-4' so (once established), they can shade out the grass.  Well, that's why there are flower-filled meadows in some places rather than just grass.

And knowing where the flowers are will allow me to cover much of the spaces between them with that 2' wide brown paper often used as packing material by shippers.  I save it and must have about 1,000' folded and stashed.

The Pollinator bed has nothing useful growing in it.  I mowed it as short as possible yesterday and will transplant the Butterfly Weed and Maltese Cross in a couple of weeks when they go dormant.  I'll add a few pollinator-friendly annuals next Spring.  Maybe get a few different perennial pollinator-friendly seedlings too.  Some good ones are just difficult to start as seeds.  So I will leave the seed-starting to the professionals and pay for actual plants.  Once established, they are basically self-sowing.

I am determined to make both beds succeed!