Spring Wildflowers for Pollinators and Our Garden

Earlier this year, we saw an abundance of spring wildflowers blooming in our garden. The early spring blooms provide much-needed pollen and nectar for honeybees, bumblebees, and other pollinators. The flowers also support other beneficial insects, which help to control insect pests that otherwise damage our vegetable crops.  

Yellow golden groundsel was the first to bloom, as usual. This is a great native plant for wet areas, like our garden, and it grows in both full sun and partial shade. It will also grow in dry and medium soil. It is multiplying and forming colonies where it is happy and serving as a groundcover and living mulch throughout the year. You can read more about golden groundsel and its use in the Chesapeake Bay watershed here. 

Golden Groundsel beginning to bloom

Colony of Golden Groundsel

 

Virginia bluebells

Virginia bluebells were the star of this year's show. These spring ephemerals pop up, bloom, set seed, and then disappear by midsummer. The plants are dormant for most of the year, with underground tubers that will send up leaves again next spring. Bumblebees, butterflies, and moths all appreciate its nectar. 

Did you know there is a geranium native to North America? There is, and it's growing and blooming in our garden! This plant grows in partial to full shade and medium to dry soil. It is native to the woodlands of the Eastern United States. We grow it in a bed at the edge of the woods, in partial shade. 

Wild Geranium (Cranesbill)

Woodland phlox (Phlox stolonifera)

This year, native creeping phlox bloomed in a new pollinator bed at the edge of the garden. Like the native geranium, it grows in full to partial shade. This plant likes the rich, moist soil of the forest floor. We've planted it in a partially shaded garden bed at the edge of the woods. 

We've planted the native wildflowers featured here with grant funding from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.  

A Garden of Possibilities

Today, I am plotting—um, I mean planning—my garden. What shall I grow this year? I want plants that will thrive in the new reality of climate instability and are disease-resistant, especially to common diseases in our garden, like cucumber mosaic virus. Yes, plants get viruses. (Achoo!) I want to arrange my plants so they don't grow or lean into the path or my neighbor's plots. I also want to be careful of space-hogging plants in my 2025 garden.   

First, let's look at what grew well last year, with the cool, wet spring, typical hot summer (with a streak of horrible 90+ degree days), and months-long drought. 

Swiss chard and kale did well at the beginning of the season. Collards have done well in past years. Beets did well in the spring, but I didn't harvest them in time. Mizuna "Miz America" was a nice surprise, and the pink mizuna did well as usual. Batavian Endive was another nice surprise, producing lovely, lush heads of salad greens. The collards and kale planted last spring did well throughout the season, but the plants are now battered from this winter's snow. Cauliflower Romesco was a bust. The harlequin bugs destroyed it.   

Cherry tomatoes did well; other tomatoes not so much. The Sungold and wild red cherry tomatoes continued to produce until frost. I even found a Sungold tomato in a sheltered spot in late December. Eggplant did well. Hot peppers produced well, but my sweet lunchbox pepper plant caught a virus. (Ahhh Choo!) Purslane did really well, as always, and is now a food crop rather than a weed in my garden. 

The herbs were amazing, especially the roselle and ever-present mint. (Grow it in a pot and don't let it escape!) Lemon balm continued to expand, growing into the pathway. Oops! The basil needs another spot away from the vining cherry tomatoes. Syrian oregano did well. Lovage is seeding itself around the garden.  

Next, let's look at what grew where, especially tomatoes and cucurbits. These plants need to be grown in a different spot this year to minimize disease pressure. This is called crop rotation. I plan my crop rotations around the tomatoes. I sketch out a garden plan and make changes until I am happy with it. 

Then reality hits, as I go out to the garden to see the work I must do to pull winter weeds and prepare my garden beds for planting. Fortunately, it's early in the season, with days of surprisingly nice weather. See you in the garden!