Backyard pollinator garden in Shearwater
Our clients had recently purchased a new home in Shearwater (located in St. Johns county) on a relatively small suburbain lot. They were torn between a house in the country and the conveniences of suburbia so ultimately making the decision to buy a new home in a modern neighborhood was exciting but required some sacrifice. Our clients wanted to recapture some of the whimsy they dreamed about in their hypothetical country home with an expansive wild flower and pollinator garden.
The style of this garden is fully dictated by the needs of butterflies. We focused on creating the best butterfly garden we could conjure, assuming that if it’s pretty enough for butterflies our client Gayle would love it too. We started with a plant pallet that included every appropriate butterfly host plant we could think of (such as: milkweed, fennel, citrus, Dutchman’s pipe, passion vine and false nettles) and rounded things off with the prettiest selection of nectar producing perennials we could think of (such as: salvias, cupheas, porterweed, Pentas, honeysuckle and Firebush). We covered every square inch with plants but gave plenty of room for everything to fit together perfectly.
This garden does have a slightly higher level of maintenance but the abundance of different flowering perennials means that there is always the perfect amount of pruning, deadheading, weeding and possibly some troubleshooting needed for things to look tiptop. However this garden is heavily mulched, well spaced, and diverse enough to resist the problems usually associated with such a productive garden.
Although Gayle’s backyard is small it has a unique elevation change that creates an almost cathedral like setting for this beautiful butterfly garden. We also included a handmaid hammered-copper butterfly bath that has weathered and functioned perfectly. We were so excited to build a butterfly garden ahead all of the elements necessary for a long lived stationary butterfly community. If you visit Gayle’s garden you can see the immense amount of diversity in not only that butterflies but the hummingbirds, bees and other pollinators that visit daily.
You can view more images of our work here! All images were taken on 35mm and 120 film by our in house photographer Alex and developed and scanned by our beloved film lab in Oregon, PhotoVision lab.
