I have a small city lawn in zone 6b (western new york state). I think it's perfect for a pollinator garden. It gets full sun all year. The hosta that are already there don't do well in the sun, but the daylillies have taken over. I installed the butterfly bush last year. And tho beautiful I saw concerns that they're not as nutritious as I thought. So, this year I did more research and I hope i have a better plan.
Last year I experimented with laying down cardboard and mulch to cover/kill not just lawn but the MANY invasives that plague my back yard, and I was very pleased with the results. So, my plan is to cover the lawn with cardboard and a good 3-4 inches of mulch this year, and install the outlined garden in stages.
I did some research and came up with the attached outline. Most are native to my area. The lavender isn't native but shows up as a useful pollinator, and I have use for the plant. The bearded iris aren't native and aren't especially good pollinators but.. I really love them as a personal preference. I think they're beautiful.
I'm excited to install this garden but also, does anyone see any big red flags? Any "girl no that's super invasive" or "yeah that doesn't grow one foot tall that grows ten" in particular?
My goals for this garden are
1) eliminate the need to mow. I'd much rather weed than mow.
2) support pollinators
3) be beautiful
Please let me know your thoughts?
Edit to describe photos:
1) a photo of a small lawn in front of a blue house
2) a design for a garden with plant names
by elcasaurus
9 Comments
The one thing I’ve learned is to avoid symmetry especially if it’s something that’ll bother you if for instance one plant doesn’t survive, or grows at a different pace than its counterpart. Ransomness helps cover up situations like that.
A lot of butterfly bushes are not native to USA to try and get a native one for NY.
The circles are not at all proportional to how much space these plants take up. Butterfly bushes are about 10X the space of a bearded iris. Overall the butterfly bushes will take up far more space and then you need way way more plants in the front.
Iris’ are spring bloomers, need more late bloomers mixed in like cardinal flower, or aster.
So give butterfly bushes much larger circles, maybe three along the back, move the milk flower
into the front portion and then add about 4X plants. It’ll be really quite sparse if you don’t.
Look into whether your city has requirements for Planned Natural Landscapes. I had to create a mulched setback along the sidewalk to be in compliance.
Be prepared for the common milkweed to show up everywhere in year 2. It spreads via rhizome and I didn’t know this before I planted a few seeds. No I battle 10 feet long roots every year. Cautionary tale!
I’d get rid of the butterfly bush and plant more milkweed, butterfly bush feeds the adults but does nothing for the caterpillars. I yanked mine out and replaced with swamp milkweed, we get monarchs every year. ETA butterfly bush also can get huge, ours was well over 10ft tall even though I pruned it a few times a year
What did you use to draw up your plans? I’m in central ny I think same zone and want to do something like this in my own front yard.
I would plan for multi seasons here. You have a ton of summer flowers, but what will this look like in winter? Get some early blooming things or winter blooming things. Having 2 or 3 small evergreens goes a long way, even if they don’t bloom. Camellia, conifer, pieris, azalea, lots of options!
You’ll probably want something evergreen, too, so you have some visual interest in the winter. I would avoid things that will grow taller than your window in front of your window. A good rule of thumb is to avoid symmetric plantings and instead do small groups of 3, 5, or even 7 if small and repeat in different areas for cohesion
Rec to replace as many non natives with natives especially the butterfly bush