Tag Archive for: Butterfly Garden

A Butterfly / Hummingbird Garden Finished!

Last time we ‘talked’, I was showing you a Butterfly / Hummingbird Garden that I was asked to work on.

“Creating a Butterfly / Hummingbird Garden”

As I promised, here is the photo of the finished project…

Hummingbird Garden

Butterfly / Hummingbird Garden

 Although the new plants are somewhat small and scraggly-looking, they will soon grow and produce many flowers.

Hummingbird Garden

Butterfly / Hummingbird Garden

We created a pathway throughout the garden and groups of plants will visually guide visitors along the curved path.

The pathway was made of 1/4″ stabilized decomposed granite, which is essentially decomposed granite that has been mixed with a stabilizer.  This creates a natural pathway that has a hard surface.

As I promised last time, here is a list of butterfly / hummingbird reflecting plants that we included:

Autumn Sage (Salvia greggii) Butterfly & Hummingbird

Autumn Sage (Salvia greggii) Butterfly & Hummingbird

Baja Ruellia  (Ruellia peninsularis) Hummingbird

Baja Ruellia  (Ruellia peninsularis) Hummingbird

Black Dalea  (Dalea frutescens) Butterfly / Hummingbird

Black Dalea  (Dalea frutescens) Butterfly / Hummingbird

Damianita  (Chrysactinia mexicana)

Damianita  (Chrysactinia mexicana)

Firecracker Penstemon  (Penstemon eatonii)Butterfly / Hummingbird

Firecracker Penstemon  (Penstemon eatonii)Butterfly / Hummingbird

Globe Mallow  (Sphaeralcea ambigua)Butterflies 

Globe Mallow  (Sphaeralcea ambigua)Butterflies 

Lantana (all species)Butterfly / Hummingbird

Lantana (all species)Butterfly / Hummingbird

Red Bird-of-Paradise (Caesalpinia pulcherrima)Butterfly / Hummingbird

Red Bird-of-Paradise (Caesalpinia pulcherrima)Butterfly / Hummingbird

Red Fairy Duster  (Calliandra californica)

Red Fairy Duster  (Calliandra californica) Butterflies / Hummingbirds 

These are but a few of the plants that will attract butterflies and/or hummingbirds.  So how about including some in your garden?

Creating a Butterfly / Hummingbird Garden

Do you like butterflies and hummingbirds?  It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t.

Butterfly / Hummingbird Garden

Hummingbird at the Living Desert in Palm Desert, CA

Over 13 years ago, I was working for a golf course management company.  At that time, I created a butterfly garden and a separate hummingbird garden, adjacent to one of the golf courses.

A few years afterward, I created another hummingbird garden at another golf course.  It was so rewarding to see the little hummers visit the flowering plants and perch up high in the Palo Verde trees.

Hummingbird Garden

Hummingbird Garden

So you can imagine how excited I was when I was asked to help create a new butterfly & hummingbird garden.

In fact, the site was the same hummingbird garden that I had created over 10 years ago (above).

Over the years, the plants hadn’t been replaced and it didn’t look the same as it did.

Creating a Butterfly / Hummingbird Garden

I visited the site with the person who was spearheading the new garden and we started to determine what existing plants would stay and which ones we would have removed- because this garden is to be an educational garden for the community, we needed to keep only the plants that attracted butterflies and/or hummingbirds.

The woman I was working with is a retired horticulturist in Minnesota and we had so much fun talking about ‘gardening’ and past projects.

Then I went to work on the design.  The garden will have a path and benches on either end so that people can sit and enjoy watching butterflies and hummingbirds.

Because this was to be a combination Butterfly/Hummingbird garden, I incorporated plants that would attract both.

In fact, there are many plants that attract both butterflies and hummingbirds.

Once the design and estimate was approved, it was time to come back out and mark out the path and flag for plant and boulder placement.

It was so much fun to see my old friends from my former landscape crew stop by and say “hi”.

A few days later, it was time to place the plants, which is my absolutely favorite part.

Creating a Butterfly / Hummingbird Garden
Creating a Butterfly / Hummingbird Garden

Later that same day, the landscape company came out to install the plants.

I can’t wait for you to see the finished project and show you the plant list.

**To see the finished project and plant list, click here.**

PS.  Thanks to all of you who so kindly voted for me for “Top Gardening Blog”(I came in 7th out of the 51 blogs that were nominated :-).