Skip to Navigation Skip to Content
Decorative woodsy background

Bee Our Guest: Spring in the Pollinator Garden

Pollinator garden sign
Certified last fall by UNH and UMaine Cooperative Extensions, our garden meets pollinator-friendly standards – this sign lets visitors know we’re committed to that effort.

Welcome to another season in our pollinator garden! This spring has brought fresh blooms, eager visitors, and a few improvements to help the garden thrive – including a new stone border and creative deer deterrents. We’re excited to display our official Pollinator-Friendly sign, and we’ve already hosted workshops, school children, and plenty of pollinators. Scroll through the photos to see what’s been happening and how the garden is taking shape this year.

Our thanks to the Jack & Dorothy Byrne Foundation, The Lyme Foundation, and the many generous neighbors who make this garden possible.

Bee Our Guest Gallery

Early spring garden Photo: Emily S. Rowe
In spring the crabapple tree blossomed and the perennials were popping up with gusto! Every day we saw more new growth. We also continued to deal with drainage issues during heavy rains. | Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Late spring garden Photo: Emily S. Rowe
In mid-spring after a particularly heavy rain, we constructed a small stone wall to contain the traveling wood chips. It gives a nice definition to the garden edge and driveway. See how big and full the plants are looking! | Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Seed starting workshop Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Our first garden-related event was a seed-starting workshop with ten participants. Nancy talked about some of the chosen plants, shared leftover seeds, and demonstrated how to plant them in containers. | Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Seed starting workshop Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Workshop participant planting seeds. Nice hat! | Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Backyard birds Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Another workshop that made it out to the garden: backyard birds of spring with outdoor educator, Jocelyn Duffy. | Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Garden visitors Photo: Emily S. Rowe
We were delighted to host the Lyme School second graders, who were enthusiastic and had very interesting questions! | Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Garden flower Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Bradbury’s monarda bloomed this spring for the first time. It was worth the wait! | Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Flower Photo: Emily S. Rowe
The columbine has been blooming for weeks in various locations around the garden. | Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Mushroom Photo: Emily S. Rowe
These mushrooms have been prolific with all the rain, and the second graders were very intrigued by them. | Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Pollinator on flower Photo: Emily S. Rowe
The students were very excited to see pollinators in action on the Ohio spiderwort – a lovely blossom appearing in mid to late spring. | Photo: Emily S. Rowe
In bloom Photo: Emily S. Rowe
June brought forth blossoms on this downy woodmint, which has tiny but plentiful flowers. | Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Bee in flower Photo: Emily S. Rowe
We are enjoying the bees pushing their way into these hairy beardtongue blossoms. | Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Flower Photo: Emily S. Rowe
The lance-leaved coreopsis is going to be bursting with blooms any day now. | Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Spittlebug residence Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Meadow spittlebugs have taken up residence on the foxglove beardtongue, which is just beginning to flower. | Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Plants are labeled Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Identification labels show visitors what they are seeing, such as this butterfly weed, which will also bloom for the first time. | Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Deer deterant Photo: Emily S. Rowe
We’ve hung containers filled with blood meal from the serviceberry trees and placed others near smooth blue aster, which are proving to be a favorite deer snack. Another plant they munch on is New Jersey tea. We’ll also be trying Irish Spring soap and possibly coyote urine to deter the deer. | Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Garden map Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Nancy’s garden map! Come pick one up! | Photo: Emily S. Rowe
Early summer Photo: Emily S. Rowe
How the garden looks today. Come by for a visit! | Photo: Emily S. Rowe

No discussion as of yet.

Leave a reply

To ensure a respectful dialogue, please refrain from posting content that is unlawful, harassing, discriminatory, libelous, obscene, or inflammatory. Northern Woodlands assumes no responsibility or liability arising from forum postings and reserves the right to edit all postings. Thanks for joining the discussion.