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nick_17815_pa

Some SuperSized Gardening Next Spring

nick_17815_pa
16 years ago

Well I moved into a ranch on 14 acres this summer, and I made a couple gardens so I could move plants over from my old yard to my new one. I didn't get to put in a real veggie garden due to the time of moving, and being overwhelmed with everything else. I finally broke down and bought a real tractor to do some big gardening. I got a 30HP 4WD Diesel tractor :o)

I know the veggie garden is going to be huge with a little/lot of everything this year. I was thinking about tilling up a good chunk of lawn near the orchard I started to plant. Has anyone had a good luck with a good wild flower mix that will take easily and grow in real thick? I'd like an area to attract bees to help pollinate. I was also thinking about putting in some wildflowers in the middle of the veggies that I'd let come up year after year. Any suggestions/warning...etc

Comments (4)

  • User
    16 years ago

    Nick,
    COngrads on your new gardens!
    I am sooo jealous!
    Why do you want to plant wildflowers?
    Your orchard willl be fine, you don't need wildflowers around them to attract bees. By the way, there have been problems with lack of bees for polination due to pesticides.
    The bees will definately come when they smell fruit.
    If you want to plant wild flowers just to have them, just plant them then.
    Wild flowers look nice by themselves, as if they came up by themselves. in their own space.
    Good luck with your new gardens!
    Post a pic next year when everything starts to grow in, we would love to see it.

  • nick_17815_pa
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    I would like to plant the wildflowers just to have them, but beyond attracting extra beeds, I'd also like to attract beneficial insects to help keep the pests in place. I plan to spray my apples in the spring (against spots and such), but I am not big on spraying my plants against pests. I like encourage the good guys to kill the bad ones.
    Another reason for wanting it is to turn an area to naturalized flowers, and one less place to mow :o)

  • caterwallin
    16 years ago

    Nick, Congratulations on your new place and your plans for this coming year! I just got into butterflies in late summer of 2005 and absolutely love wildflowers. I never tried any mix and have been gradually building up my garden over the past several years. The thing that I find to big the biggest honeybee and bumblebee attractant in my garden is Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum). On just about any day I could go outside and see hundreds of honeybees gathering nectar from the anise flowers. The leaves have a heavenly scent and I just love the plants. I've read that honeybees are having problems so I want to help them out and hope that my pesticide-free garden will be a haven for bees and butterflies.

    One of my passions is Monarch butterflies, so I have a couple hundred milkweed plants outside and have raised a little over 500 this year. I have also planted other nectar and host plants for various types of butterflies, some of which I already have and some that I hope to be able to attract here someday. Not only do the butterflies go to the milkweed but so do bees. Other good wildflowers to plant would be purple coneflowers, Joe Pyeweed, blazing star liatris, ironweed, black-eyes susans...there are just so many wildflowers to choose from. I'm still reading about wildflowers and trying to decide which ones I want to plant yet. It's really fun looking at pictures of them online. A good place to get wildflower seeds from is Prairie Moon Nursery. Best of luck with your venture.

  • pattygrow5
    16 years ago

    Nick don't buy seeds if you send me a self addressed stamped bubble envelope I will send tons of seeds for native plants to you.
    Patty

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