Rambling around the garden and rambling about the garden…These are just some pics I’ve taken over the past couple of years – more of our pollinating friends than of the actual layout of the yard. We’re in Georgia – just outside of Atlanta – in case you’re wondering about any of the native wildflowers we’ve planted and what zone we’re in. I think it’s zone 8.

I have really gotten into rewilding – I’m working on replacing my lawn with native lawn covers. Working is the operative word here. Most of the yellow in these photos is Coreopsis or Tickseed from seed I threw in to some raised beds.

I started the raised beds with natives for our pollinating friends a few years ago and just kind of let them do their thing. The above photo is from around 2015, I think -so I had just started them. That’s our over one hundred year old oak tree in the background. It is massive and fabulous.

This is from later that year when things started really growing. The coreopsis didn’t reseed and now it’s mostly Coneflower and Wild Bergamot – like in the photos below.

We have three of these birdhouses scattered around the yard and in the Spring all three are usually occupied, mostly by Bluebirds. It’s made of PVC pipe painted to look like an Aspen – super easy to clean. I originally got it from Amazon quite a awhile ago.

I didn’t really get into gardening until a few years ago – I mean really paying attention to what I’m planting – so my garden is a mishmash of all of the flowers I’ve loved over the years and the new natives that I’ve been trying to cultivate. I’m not a native purist – I definitely think you should add them in – especially to help your local pollinators – but I also think that you should plant things that make you happy as long as they aren’t invasive. So, if you love gardenias and hydrangeas – plant some gardenias and hydrangeas.

I also think throwing out some annual seeds helps with color and adding more food for your small friends.

Lantana isn’t native to us – but it’s not invasive and our butterfly friends adore it.

We don’t deadhead – we just leave the old blossoms for the Goldfinches.

You should definitely have some kind of water feature. We have bird baths in a few places and I have a very small in-ground pond that I’m going to redo this year – we even had a lovely frog friend for a while. And a lovely Blue Dasher dragonfly hung out with us for a while.

Well, that’s enough of a ramble for today. I have a ton of photos so I’ll probably do some more garden ramble posts in the future. Hope you have a great rest of your day!