Flowers That Attract Birds, Butterflies, Hummingbirds

Black Eyed Susan
The most well-known are bright yellow daisy-like flowers with a tall, somewhat hairy stem. They are relatively tall, easy to grow and make excellent cut flowers.

They do grow best in full sun. Try to find a spot that offers at least 6 hours of direct sun a day. Once established, they are tough.

Butterfly Weed
Best in well drained sand, clay or limestone. Full sun to partial shade, they grow about 1½ to 2 feet tall, are orange or yellow and are in clusters.

A little hard to grow but easy to maintain once they are established. Provides a banquet of bugs for a variety of birds, and definitely attracts butterflies.

Many people like to remove their pods when they are done blooming, as the pods will burst and spread seeds everywhere.

Yarrow
2' - 5' tall, yarrow is pink, red, yellow, white and gold. Some consider them a weed.

Does good in poor soil but likes sun. Attracts lots of insects, so the birds are attracted as well.

Try to divide them every 3 years for best results.

There are plenty more flowers and plants that can be added to this list. I'll show you more in future posts.

The spotted bee balm plant produces a beautiful plant with purple spotted flowers known to attract bees and other beneficial garden pollinators.

This is a must have plant.  Bee Balm It is drought resistant. 

Beautiful Succulents

 My neighbor gave me a succulent plant this year and now I'm hooked. Here's some of the plants I have sitting on a shelf on my indoor pond.

The one in the yellow pot is the one she gave me and, if you look to the far left, you'll see a cup with the same succulent in it. My grandson took some leaves from the original and planted them as an experiment. You can see they are growing nicely. 

The other two succulents were given to me by my grandson for my birthday. The one in the middle is so gorgeous. The pot is unique and looks like two tree stumps. A cactus is in the smaller trunk and an arrangement is in the larger. They came from Home Depot and the only description is drought resistant.

Right behind my original is a beautiful cactus succulent. Here is a closeup. I can't find it on the internet so if anyone knows what kind of succulent cactus this is, please let me know.

I'm going to try to find names of these plants. As I said, they are drought resistant, and the care instructions on the tag are just the same instructions for most succulents. 

I have plans to add a lot more, so I'll update you as I make progress.

Succulents

Top 5 Perrenials for Butterfly Gardens

 

I'm going to cheat a little here. I mentioned I'm starting a butterfly garden this fall, but most of the plants will be planted in the spring. Research is the key right now.

So I came across this video on Youtube that I think I'm going to refer to when I go out plant shopping. I have some sedum right now, and I've also put out seeds for butterfly weeds. So I've got two of the plants for a head start. I think I have a purple cone flower as well somewhere in my yard. Have to check that out.

Enjoy the video and if I find videos or articles from time to time that I think will help you in your landscaping, I'll add them as well.

Succulent Garden for Butterflies

 OK. This isn't much to look at yet, but I got these in before winter hit so the roots have time to establish.

You can see the outline of the garden. I dug away the grass in the plot to add a nice design to the garden. The top right is a butterfly bush. The two other plants are succulents. The smallest one was actually growing part way under my deck. I have plants show up out of the blue all the time.

The big one in the middle is one I just transplanted. It was in an area of the yard where it was covered by bushes and yet it was growing. I decided to move it here.

I also planted some butterfly weed seeds along the sidewalk area. Anxious to see how they do. In the spring I'll add more plants with the idea of attracting butterflies. This is in my front yard. I'll admit I have neglected the front yard as I spend a lot of time in the backyard landscaping. With two ponds and a deck pond, I'm sure you can understand why.

Here is what these 2 succulents will look like. This one is in full bloom right next to my Japanese Maple.

This is named Sedum telephium 'Purple Emperor' (Stonecrop)

I'm not an expert on succulents but here is an article that is very informative. Succulents That Attract Butterflies  

Compost Worm Bucket Done

 

There it is. In the ground and ready to go. I put down a 1" layer of shredded paper to begin, and then added peat moss soil. I think I put in enough to make the bucket half full. Watered it down good. It drained fine with all those holes.

I added kitchen scraps and wet cardboard, along with dead leaves. I put a little more peat moss on top.

The worms arrived and I added them and sprinkled water to wake them up after their trip from the worm farm. My grandson came by with some nightcrawlers he had left from fishing and, after he fed the fish, dumped the rest in the bucket.

I've checked this a few times in the past week and a half. Everything seems to be breaking down real well. Added some ground up eggshells and frozen vegetables.  My grandson has pulled out some of the worms to feed our fish.

It's getting cooler out now and winter is only a couple months away so I'm anxious to see how this does during the winter. The worms can easily leave the bucket and head down to warmer dirt, so I don't see any issues.

I'll update this from time to time.

Indoor Koi Pond Oasis

 I wanted to get this up today. Next week I'll be putting up pictures of the work in progress to get here, as well as giving you step by step instructions so you can build your own.

I have koi outside in a large pond and one that is dropped in my deck. I have pictures of those elsewhere. The one on the deck houses 3 small koi that won't quite be ready for the winter so they will come inside in this pond.

Worm Tower - Make Your Own Compost

 So, I went to Menards and got a 5-gallon food grade plastic bucket and a lid. They said they had food grade lids but, as usual, they didn't. I don't think the lid is that big of a deal and actually, you watch Youtube videos and they seldom say bucket needs to be food grade.

I drilled 1/2" holes in the sides in a 3-2-3-2 pattern. 

Why? I don't know. It sounded cool.

I went the entire way around the bucket and then drilled holes in the bottom for drainage. Still used 1/2" bit and went in a circle. One row and I drilled a hole in the center.

I put it in the hole and filled up the sides with dirt. Then added maybe a 1" layer of shredded paper at the bottom of the bucket. It's good bedding.

I filled up the bucket not quite halfway with topsoil with peat moss. Peat moss is supposed to be what worms like, but I know some areas don't have much available. Just use topsoil but not potting soil. Wet everything down. Don't worry if you think you put too much water in. It will drain.

I added my kitchen scraps and mixed in a little more topsoil. Now I wait. My worms are supposed to arrive tomorrow. I'll update you.

Worm Tower Using 5 Gallon Bucket

OK. So I decided I'm going to try my hand at adding a worm tower to my garden. I'll be using a 5-gallon plastic food grade bucket with a food grade lid. 

This post is just an introduction. Tomorrow I'll go buy the bucket and lid. Cost is around 10 bux. The first step will be drilling holes in the bucket and then digging a hole in the ground for the bucket. 

I'll be posting pictures showing how I do all this, so you'll want to bookmark this site and check back. I have ordered Super Red European Night Crawlers to add to the new tower as they are good composting worms and, this is very important, are a good fishing worm.

I'm pretty sure my koi in my larger pond will enjoy an occasional snack, as well as the bass and two catfish in my smaller pond. But mainly I'll add kitchen scraps regularly to the tower and allow these guys to break down the scraps into a rich compost to feed my garden.

Stya tuned, guys!

Koi Survived Brutal Ohio Winter

 Once again, my koi survived a brutal Ohio winter. This winter had some serious freezing but my pumps in my largest pond kept pumping away. There was ice on the pond but a clear area from the pumps plus the fish stayed in the deepest end.

I closed up my deck pond and my small backyard pond and brought those fish inside. All 7 Koi are thriving. I put 2 large goldfish in another downstairs pump, and they are doing good.

As I started doing last year, I added bio balls to my pump for the koi and, as you can see, the pond stayed nice and clear. All I've had to do is add water as the water gets sucked into the dry winter air.

I'll probably put the open the small backyard pond in a week or 2 and add the goldfish. The deck pond probably won't be opened until mid-April. I won't transfer the koi until then. They all grew but won't go into the large pond at this time. I need to be certain they are large enough that the bass doesn't get them.