Work on the pollinator garden slowed down for the winter. We’ve made great progress so far.
We took down many dead trees and buckthorn bushes which were bad for the garden. This created more sunny spaces for plants. We tried to find plants that would attract pollinators across their lifecycles, so some plants are better for bees or butterflies or caterpillars. We have added many new plants like lavender, hostas, daylilies, yarrow, elderberries, asters, Queen of the Prairie, black eyed Susans, columbine, sedum, milkweed, catmint, thyme, purple coneflowers, monarda, hyssops, and daffodils.
We worked with the U of I Extension Service and found great ideas to avoid chemicals in the garden. One idea we were able to do quickly was to add wood chips and killed many weeds by smothering them with cardboard and covering them with more wood chips. We added more wood chips around the plants that we planted in earlier to give them some protection during the cold weather.
