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Three pollinator garden ideas Pollinators can find everything they need in this very low-maintenance landscape. When his parents bought a house in Carroll, Iowa, Austin Escheid saw what many aspiring garden designers dream of: a blank canvas. "The weekend they left I drove home with a car full of plants," says Eischeid, who at the time was working toward a bachelor's degree in horticulture at nearby Ames. He arrived at their new location with a clear view of meadow-like meadows and a landscape of blooming perennials. He got the idea after hearing horticulturist Roy Diblick lecture on the beauty of natural gardens and their ability to attract pollinators. Practically speaking, Eischeid saw the approach as a way to relieve his parents of frequent pruning, watering and mowing. So out went the mowed lawn of the front yard, along with the shrubs and vines grown in the backyard. In their place, Eischeid arranged lawn-like plants in drifts, a move he learned while w

Plant a pollinator garden 👉  Pinterest 👉  Facebook One of the biggest causes of declining pollinator populations is habitat loss. Butterflies, bees and other important pollinators are becoming increasingly rare in many residential gardens across the country due to the widespread use of pesticides and the decline of the nectar-rich flowers they rely on for food. Fortunately, by dedicating a space in your garden to pollinator-friendly plants, local pollinators can be well-fed all season long. Pollination is important Almost all flowering plants must be pollinated to produce seeds. And most flowering plants depend on bees, butterflies, and other animals (bats, hummingbirds) for pollination. Although there are non-native plants and hybrids that feed on pollinators, you can count on native plants to attract local pollinators because they are interspersed. Cultivars of native plants - often referred to as "natives" - may support pollination, but not in all cases (see

Garden Design  Landscape Pro 👉  Pinterest 👉   Facebook  Starting a garden can feel overwhelming. And sometimes it's hard to know if you like something until you see it. By then, you've put in enough hours, hard work, and money that it's hard to change. These 6 smart design tips from landscape designer and educator Rochelle Grayer can help. Follow her simple tips and you'll be on your way to enjoying your garden instead of agonizing over it! 1. Work from the middle, not the edges inward. It can be tempting to start designing by implementing what already exists. For example, many gardeners' first beds are borders around the property line. Instead, decide what's most important to you and design from that. Maybe you really want a vegetable garden. Or maybe a shady spot is more important to you. If so, design traffic patterns, hardscaping and views to create a thoughtful, cohesive layout, starting with wherever works best in your garden. 2. Change the

varieties with different flowering times 👉   Pinterest 👉  Facebook Peonies put on such a beautiful show, you hate it to end! Keep the blooms coming by planting peony varieties with different bloom times. Extend the peony program Peonies only bloom once in the spring and in a few years those wonderful blooms seem to be gone in a flash. You can extend the show by growing peony varieties with different bloom times. You can find early, mid and late blooming peonies and can take up to 6 weeks to get color depending on the weather. (Hot weather accelerates this process.) Early bloomers bloom about a month before mid-season bloom. Mid-season peonies bloom from late April in southern gardens to early June in northern gardens. Late blooming when mid-season flowering ends. Peony cut flower notes With all these blooms, you'll often have plenty to cut off a few handfuls to enjoy those lusciously fragrant blooms. Look for open flowers or buds with color, then use pruners to cut o