As mentioned previously, this spring I finally committed to starting a garden with the hopes of supporting birds, bees, butterflies and more. As soon as the snow (finally) melted, I dug and tilled up a little rectangle in the corner of the backyard. I learned that hand-tilling is a good workout.
Once the spot was free of grass, I sprinkled some wildflower mix over the soil and put some water down. Whenever I would look outside, I would see sparrows hopping around the garden, and so I re-seeded the area several times. I was pretty concerned because for what felt a few weeks, nothing was coming up. I bought a few plants from local greenhouses just to guarantee something would grow, but it turns out that was unnecessary.
The garden is now teeming with life. Lots of cosmos, black-eyed susans, cornflower, alyssums and zinnias. The mix I bought was geared towards pollinators (monarchs in particular), but so far I have not seen any milkweed, blazing star or prairie clover. That said, I'm happy with how much has grown, and it has been very fun to sit around the garden a little every day and see what has changed plus who comes to visit. So far I've noted a few tiger swallowtails, many species of bee, some beetles and a couple monarchs! The rabbits have also been snacking on the lower branches of the cosmos, but the plants are growing just fine.
