Our builder seemed to have a notion to jam as many plants in a small space as possible. Our project is to thin it out and replant with plants we WANT not what the builder decided to put in. It's a slow process, and when money allows, we add what we can.
This past weekend's work involved Bee Balm. We wanted something that would attract hummingbirds and butterflies. I first thought I would get a Butterfly Bush, but I know that hummingbirds love the color red. The Butterfly Bushes I found were only purple or white. We may go back and get these later but we decided to on the Bee Balm since the flowers were red. Getting them out of the area with the rest of them was very difficult. Many of the stalks were bent and broke on the pots in the group. I picked out the best looking pots and only lost one stalk in the tangles. We brought them home and waited until early evening to plant since it was just so hot.
We had to remove the dying bushes that hardly got any water from the side of the porch.
We dug down deep and wide, filled the holes with good soil, fertilizer and planted the Bee Balm. Everything looked nice. :)
I checked on them the next morning and all seemed well. But sometime in the afternoon, when I went to go water them, several of the stalks were laying on the ground, half broken off. It was like something trampled them. This happened for the next couple of days until we decided that it may just be the wind cutting around the corner of the house. With no support and the stalks being top heavy, they were just falling over and breaking.
So we decided to build them a support structure. Here you can see it is similar to the Tomato cages. So far this has supported them rather nicely. Here's hoping it stays that way and the butterflies and hummingbirds are not afraid of it.
And we have bloomage! :D
Far from You by Lisa Schroeder
