Meadow in bloom for the birds and bees
While I was in San Antonio two weeks ago, Melody shared a friend’s meadow garden with me. The Kinder garden on Winding Way glowed that morning with tall golden sunflowers, swaths of fiery blanketflower, and my new fave, shaggy lavender American basketflower.
I circled the meadow, enjoying backlit petals…
…dewy spiderwebs…
…and trickling birdbaths half-hidden among the flowers. What a bird and pollinator’s paradise!
And what a pretty scene to enjoy for the homeowners and their friends.
Basketflower blowsiness
Sunflowers glowing like tiny suns
Salvia adding cool blue
See the caterpillar snacking on a dill flower (upper right)? Did you know that a “single clutch of Carolina Chickadee chicks can feast on upward of 9,000 caterpillars in the weeks between hatching and taking flight,” according to Audubon? But the chicks don’t get fed, or they’re poisoned, if you spray insecticides — including mosquito foggers — all over your yard. Please don’t do it. My gardening friends and I see mosquito fogging signs all over our neighborhoods, and we’ve also noticed far fewer bees, butterflies, dragonflies, ladybugs, lightning bugs, and other insects in our gardens. These creatures don’t live in just one garden. They travel from yard to yard, and all it takes is one yard sprayed for mosquitoes to kill them. Fogging treatments can also drift onto lawns, swimming pools, vegetable gardens, and patio furniture. Do you really want poison all over that, and in the air you breathe?
We all hate mosquitoes, but fogging is not a safe solution for pollinators, birds who feed their chicks caterpillars and other insects, or you and your loved ones.
That’s my mosquito fogger rant! Now back to the tour…
In a stucco-walled courtyard, a charming ceramic totem caught my eye amid pots of pansies and other plants.
Rows of stock tanks elevate cut flowers and edible plants. A birdbath with colorful ceramic birds makes a cute and functional focal point.
Inspiring! It makes me want a meadow, if only I had a patch of lawn in full sun to convert!
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Digging Deeper
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All material © 2024 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
What a haven for gardener, visitors, and pollinators alike!
Like you, I’m noticing far fewer pollinators and many more fogging services in our neighborhood. It’s heartbreaking.
Cat
It is, Cat. I’m heartened, though, to see gardeners like the Kinders putting in pollinator gardens like this. We need more of these!
Pam, it was so fun to show you, Cat, and Derrick the Kinder’s meadow! As usual you captured so many good angles of the flowers. Vickie has worked so hard to ensure that the pollinators are happy and well fed. I wish everyone would think about the consequences of using mosquito foggers!
Thank you — and Vickie in absentia! — for sharing it with us, Melody! I love the pollinator banquet she’s creating.
There’s an old saying that goes something like this, “ instead of covering the earth in leather to protect your feet, just wear shoes”. If you want to poison mosquitoes, spray yourself, not everything else!
That’s a great way to think about it, Paula. And of course DEET doesn’t kill anything. It just repels, which is all you need for enjoying the garden sans mosquitoes.
Beautiful, beautiful garden…. such a treat to see such loveliness…. thank you Vickie Kinder for creating a wonderful world for the pollinators and bunnies etc. A paradise ❤️
It’s lovely, and I’m glad you enjoyed the pics!
Oh darn about the spray. Thanks for sharing this beautiful garden, though. Simply lovely.
Happy to, Beth. Thanks for your comment!
That is so sad about the foggers. Not much of a problem with mosquitos here–I wonder if all the hummingbirds get them.
What a lovely meadow. At the Austin Fling i remember the Gaillardias everywhere–little suns shining, but tough enough to handle a hill country thunderstorm!
The wildflowers have to be pretty tough here — as you saw!
God can do wonders when he’s got enough sun! As for mosquitos, good garden centers often sell a product called Cedar Warrior or something similar. It’s ground juniper wood, which is very aromatic. If you spread it as a mulch under all your foliage, the mosquitos can’t nest in the foliage, so they leave. Works like a charm in my garden.
That’s good to know about, Peter. Thanks for sharing.
I love seeing gardens like this! The Kinders have done a beautiful job. Thanks for spreading the word on the dangers of mosquito fogging…I know some companies advertise the spray as being organic, but it’s still an indiscriminate pesticide.
So true. If a spray kills mosquitoes, it kills all bugs, even the good ones.
This style garden is what I love, love, LOVE!
I bought several of the portable Thermacell products a couple summers ago. They work by repelling mosquitos from your near vicinity (7 foot radius I think) only when you turn them on, but not killing the mosquitos so they are still serving their purpose in the food chain for bats, etc. They are the best product for not getting eaten up by mosquitos when you’re freshly showered and don’t want to wear repellant (even the plant based ones) on your skin!
I hadn’t heard of those, Carolyn. Thanks for sharing about them.